• "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Thursday afternoon that he hoped to begin floor debate on the nomination of" Sonia Sotomayor "on Tuesday as the Senate wraps up work on a series of largely noncontroversial spending and policy bills before the August recess," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "A final vote... will be scheduled for Thursday night, Democratic aides said."

• "Senate Republicans have proposed the idea of a four-day debate on the nominee, with most of their 40 members planning to speak on Sotomayor's fitness for the court," The Hill reports. "But Democrats say no more than two days should be necessary -- and that other Senate business will be on the chamber's to-do list as well."

• "Democratic Senators say their decision about whether to support" Sotomayor's confirmation "is not being swayed by the National Rifle Association's decision to use the vote to evaluate lawmakers," CQ Politics reports.

• "Whether or not the NRA is pulling the strings, the Second Amendment is clearly one of the biggest concerns for Republicans voting against Sotomayor," NationalJournal.com reports. "Nineteen of the 26 Republicans who have already pledged to vote 'nay' have mentioned the Second Amendment, gun rights or, more specifically, Sotomayor's ruling in Maloney v. Cuomo in official remarks or statements explaining their decision."

• In supporting Sotomayor, Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., is breaking with most of his party's Senate leadership, Politico reports.

• Keep tabs on which senators have committed to yes or no votes with NationalJournal.com's Vote Tracker.

• "By a margin of 50% to 23% Americans say that" Sotomayor "should be confirmed," the Pew Research Center reports on its latest survey. "Her level of public support is much greater than was the case for Samuel Alito (33%) and about the same as support for Chief Justice John G. Roberts (46%) at roughly the same point in their confirmation processes."

Commentary

• "In casting his vote for" Sotomayor "Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) struck a blow for comity, decency and intellectual honesty," the Washington Post writes.

• "There may be good reasons to oppose" Sotomayor's confirmation, "but her recent holding on the right to keep and bear arms is not one of them," Robert A. Levy, chairman of the Cato Institute, maintains on FindLaw.com. He was co-counsel to the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller.

• "What Sotomayor" and Henry Louis Gates Jr. "share is a habit of drawing dubious lessons about race from their own experiences," Stuart Taylor Jr. asserts.