• Per the White House, Sonia Sotomayor is meeting with the following senators today: Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

• Sotomayor "and senators who will vote on her confirmation are engaged in a careful conversation about where she stands on hot-button issues like abortion and gun rights," the AP reports. "You probably won't hear any of it, though, since the exchange is taking place in code."

• "Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., announced his backing for" Sotomayor "in a floor speech" Wednesday, NationalJournal.com reports. "The senator also discussed a letter he sent to Sotomayor this week that asks for her views on the court's deference to congressional fact-finding when evaluating legislation."

• CQ reports that Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., is going to deliver a "series of floor speeches outlining" conservatives' vision of what the courts' role should be. "Sessions is going to deliver such speeches periodically while the nomination of Sotomayor... is pending. But it remains to be seen whether his speeches will resonate with a public that, in polls, usually has trouble naming very many of the nine justices on the Supreme Court."

• "Conservatives and liberals, beware: television ads attacking" Sotomayor -- "or even supporting her -- may undermine public support for the court itself," the Washington Post reports. "That's the word from researchers at Ohio State University, who studied the reaction to heated ads accompanying the confirmation battle over Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. in late 2005."

• A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows that half the public said Sotomayor is "qualified for the post, versus just 13 percent who said she's not qualified," the Journal reports. "That's equivalent to numbers in November 2005 for" Alito, "who was subsequently confirmed to the court."

• And a New York Times/CBS News poll shows that Sotomayor is "still widely unknown to the public," the Times reports. "A majority of people surveyed, 53 percent, said they did not know enough about Judge Sotomayor, who would be the first Hispanic justice, to say whether she should be confirmed."

• "Andrea Bazan thought she could no longer be surprised. As a well-known Latina advocate, she has received death threats and had her home vandalized. But the nomination of a Hispanic woman to the Supreme Court has brought accusations that have blind-sided even her," the Raleigh, N.C., News & Observer reports. "Some conservatives say" Sotomayor's "membership in the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic advocacy group -- whose board Bazan has led for the past year -- should disqualify Sotomayor for the high court."

• Following his meeting with Sotomayor on Wednesday, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., expressed concerns about her stance on gun rights, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

• The Los Angeles Times reports on the cases the Supreme Court will hand down before the end of this term. Many could have a direct impact on Sotomayor's hearings, especially her panel decision in Ricci v. DeStefano.

• The Chicago Tribune reports on Rush Limbaugh's comments likening Sotomayor and her fellow members of the all-female club Belizean Grove to housemaids. The radio talk show host said, according to the Tribune, "I think I'm going to send Sotomayor, and her club, a bunch of vacuum cleaners to help them clean up after their meetings."

Top Commentary

• "If Obama had nominated a man who was a member of the Bohemian Grove, that would be a big issue and probably a fatal one," Michael Kinsley opines. "So how is it different if Sotomayor is a member of a club set up specifically to be the female equivalent?"

• "Sotomayor's decision" in the gun rights case Maloney v. Cuomo "was a model of judicial restraint that was entirely appropriate given the Supreme Court's record," Steve Chapman maintains.

• The Washington Independent's Daphne Eviatar examines Sotomayor's questioning in the extraordinary rendition case Arar v. Ashcroft.