The experts graded nominee Sonia Sotomayor and a handful of senators: Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; ranking member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.; and committee members Al Franken, D-Minn., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Arlen Specter, D-Pa. Who got the best reviews? The two newcomers, Sotomayor and Franken, who each got B averages. The committee's veterans, Leahy and Specter, scored the lowest, at C+. The two Republicans, Sessions and Graham, each got a B-.

Poll respondents were: Tony Mauro, National Law Journal reporter; Dahlia Lithwick, Slate senior editor; Tom Goldstein, founder of SCOTUSblog and Supreme Court litigator at Akin Gump; Curt Levey, executive director of the Committee for Justice; William Marshall, University of North Carolina law professor; Doug Kendall, founder and president of the Constitutional Accountability Center; Ellis Cose, Newsweek columnist; Leonard Leo, Federalist Society executive vice president; Cristina Rodriguez, New York University law professor; Carl Tobias, University of Richmond law professor; Wendy Long, general counsel for the Judicial Confirmation Network; Kristina Moore, who was covering the hearings for SCOTUSblog; and National Journal's own Stuart Taylor Jr. In order to encourage frank and open speculation, contributors were given anonymity.

After the jump, see some highlighted grades and responses.