• "The White House first contacted Judge Sonia Sotomayor about the possibility of being nominated to the Supreme Court three days before Justice David H. Souter announced his retirement and stayed in touch with her nearly every day afterward, according to documents sent to Congress on Thursday," the New York Times reports.

• ABC News has Sotomayor's exact response regarding her first contact with the White House.

• "Sotomayor told the Senate on Thursday that the White House never questioned her about cases or issues she might have to decide as a Supreme Court justice, a disclosure gleaned from reams of documents that reveal she has spoken repeatedly about how her gender and Latina heritage affect her judging," AP reports.

• "Sotomayor delivered multiple speeches between 1994 and 2003 in which she suggested 'a wise Latina woman' or 'wise woman' judge might 'reach a better conclusion' than a male judge," CQ reports.

• "Sotomayor once told a group of minority lawyers that she believed a delay in her confirmation as a federal appeals judge a decade ago was driven partly by Republican lawmakers' ethnic stereotypes of her, suggesting that the tensions surrounding her current nomination are hardly new to the New York jurist," the Washington Post reports.

• "It appears the White House enlisted some outside help in vetting" Sotomayor," the Blog of Legal Times reports. "In Sotomayor's Senate questionnaire... she revealed that Zuckerman Spaeder partner Leslie Kiernan, who specializes in congressional investigations, ethics and white-collar criminal defense, was among the first to interview the judge."

• "As a federal judge," Sotomayor "dealt with two important media issues -- copyrights and access -- and was reversed by higher courts when she ruled that freelance writers need not be compensated for online use of their published work, documents released Thursday show," AP reports.

• The Washington Post runs excerpts from several of Sotomayor's past speeches.

• "About three in 10 Americans say they have followed news about" Sotomayor "very closely and, for the most, part they like what they've learned about her more than they dislike, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted May 29 - June 1," CQ reports.

• Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, says Sotomayor's "favorite Supreme Court justice is Benjamin Cardozo," CQ reports.

• "If one wants to understand Ms. Sotomayor's journey from boutique corporate lawyer to strikingly young federal judge, the eight-year stretch from 1984 to 1992 offers the best window into her maturation as a public figure," the New York Times reports. "Her service on the city's Campaign Finance Board was vigorous, as she joined decisions that challenged three present or future mayors of both parties."

Commentary after the jump.

Commentary

• "In a nation still wrestling with its long history of prejudice, calling someone a 'racist' is one of the most incendiary things you can say," USA Today writes. "So it has been dismaying to hear prominent conservatives throw the word around so carelessly in their campaign to discredit" Sotomayor.

• "Beneath the pollution" of racism charges "is a serious policy question that needs to be resolved," Joe Klein says. "With an African-American President and a polychromatic society moving toward racial (if not economic) equity, why do we still need preferences enshrined in law?"