• "A Senate committee endorsed Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday in a vote that splintered nearly along party lines, signaling that Republicans will not hesitate to oppose the first Hispanic nominee to the nation's highest court when the full Senate decides whether to confirm her next week," the Washington Post reports.

• "After a two-hour debate, the vote was 13-6, with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham the lone Republican joining all the committee's Democrats," Politico reports. "With the GOP vowing not to filibuster the nomination, the Senate is expected to confirm" Sotomayor "to the high court as early as next week -- one of the few successes of late for the party in power as it struggles with its massive health care agenda."

• The Hill reports that "Sotomayor was not present Tuesday -- she went through four days of questioning two weeks ago."

• "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday reiterated his intention to wrap up the confirmation of" Sotomayor "before the August recess," Roll Call (subscription) reports.

• "The near-unanimous Republican vote against Sotomayor on the Judiciary panel reflected the choice many GOP conservatives have made to side with their core supporters and oppose a judge they charge will bring liberal bias and racial and gender prejudices to her decisions," AP reports. "Others in the party, however, are concerned that doing so could hurt their efforts to broaden their base, and particularly alienate Hispanic voters, a fast-growing segment of the electorate."

• "Republicans have sent a message to" Obama "that even moderate Supreme Court candidates he nominates will be opposed, analysts say," United Press International reports.

• "The contentious public hearings this month and Tuesday's largely partisan committee vote demonstrated that judicial confirmations remain a hotly contested political and ideological battleground with implications for Mr. Obama's future choices for the courts," the New York Times reports.

• Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, will vote against confirming Sotomayor, citing Second Amendment worries, the Austin American-Statesman reports.

• Keep track of which senators are committing to yes or no votes with NationalJournal.com's Vote Tracker.

• "Sotomayor's supporters -- and even some detractors -- have praised her for her long judicial career. What stands out in particular is that she would become only the second justice to join the Supreme Court since 1937 with any federal district court experience at all, according to a NationalJournal.com analysis."

Commentary

• Dahlia Lithwick recaps the senators' speeches -- in haiku form.

• "It looked bad enough that only one Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted" for Sotomayor, Dana Milbank remarks. "What made the proceedings shameful, though, is that half of the senators voting no couldn't be bothered to stick around and cast their votes in person."

• "Fleeing from principle, Graham, whose campaign website says he 'never abandons his independence or strays from the conservative reform agenda,' did both," writes Jeffrey Lord, White House political director for the Reagan administration, in The American Spectator.

• But the New York Daily News praises Graham for his vote, saying that he spoke "in the best traditions of the U.S. Senate."

• On National Review Online, Judicial Confirmation Network general counsel Wendy Long maintains that the committee vote signals "the end of Republican deference to judicial activism."