• "Conservatives stepped up their criticism of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday, but it was unclear how far Senate Republicans were willing to go to create bumps in what appears to be a smooth road to confirmation for President Barack Obama's first high-court choice," AP reports.

• "Senate Republicans are finalizing their line of attack on" Sotomayor, "casting the nominee as a biased, closed-minded judge who's on the wrong side of gun rights and affirmative action cases," Politico reports. "In other words, they want to fire up the culture war issues heading into next week's confirmation hearings -- and perhaps awaken an apathetic conservative base that has been sluggish in its reaction to the Supreme Court nominee."

• "A senior Senate GOP aide who worked closely with the Bush administration during the 2005 and 2006 nominations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito said Republicans haven't been able to find one galvanizing issue around which to build opposition," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• The New York Times examines the new roles members of the Senate Judiciary Committee members will be taking in next week's confirmation hearings.

• Sotomayor "was deemed 'well qualified' to serve as an associate justice on the high court by an" American Bar Association "panel -- the highest rating the national attorney organization bestows," the Los Angeles Times reports. "The White House was notified by a letter Tuesday to counsel Gregory Craig."

• "The National Rifle Association may not be taking an official position on" Sotomayor "yet, but in a letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee leadership" Monday, "the group went right up to the edge of announcing its opposition," NationalJournal.com reports.

Commentary

• Supreme Court confirmation hearings are a "peculiar ritual at the intersection of all three branches of government that, in the opinion of many, has gotten out of hand," National Law Journal reporter Tony Mauro remarks in USA Today. "Nonetheless, it will be worth your while to watch."

• Ed Whelan analyzes the Supreme Court abortion cases that the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund weighed in on during Sotomayor's tenure on the group's board. "If there is any reason to believe that Sotomayor was not 'an involved and ardent supporter' of PRLDEF's extreme positions on abortion in these cases," he writes, "I'm not aware of it."

• "A perennial feature of judicial confirmation hearings is watching Senate Democrats and Republicans alike invert their approaches to various issues depending on the party of the nominating president." Stuart Taylor Jr. suggests looking "for some of that during next week's Judiciary Committee hearings."

• SCOTUSblog has a roundup of "published reports and substantive blog posts about" Sotomayor's judicial record.