3:10 p.m.

Committee breaks, for a review of the FBI file. This is SOP.

3:04 p.m.

Responding to a set-up question from Franken, Sotomayor agrees that, indeed, the phrase "birth control" does not appear in the Constitution. OK. This, following up on an observation from a pro-life senator's observation yesterday that the Constitution does not include the word "abortion."

Circling back, Franken asks Sotomayor if she can identify the one case in Perry Mason in which the absurdly outmatched DA , Hamilton Burger, actually won. She cannot think of it. Franken jokingly says the White House did not prepare her properly.

The FunTrivia site reports: Mason actually lost two murder cases in the original series. But in one, "The Case of the Terrified Typist," he was misled by his client, and in the other, "The Case of the Deadly Verdict," his client was eventually cleared.

The War Room is on the case: the White House press office just forwarded e-mail noting that, indeed, "The Case of the Deadly Verdict" is the one recognized case in which Mason lost.

2:52 p.m.

Franken tries to get Sotomayor to distinguish herself from Justice Clarence Thomas's skeptical view toward the Voting Rights Act as expressed in the Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder decision. Thomas opined, all by his lonesome, that the court should strike down Section 5 of the law.

No surprise: Sotomayor says she cannot express a view because the court may yet take up further Voting Rights Act cases, in which the Sectino 5 provision may come up.

2:48 p.m.

Asked to define 'judicial activism,' Sotomayor says it is not a term she uses. Eyes of the beholder, perhaps.

2:41 p.m.

Franken launches into a speech about the need for keeping the Internet free and open. Learn to keep it concise, senator. Then, he finally reels himself back in and asks about a Supreme Court decision authored by Justice Clarence Thomas called National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X Internet Services.

He presses: is there an overriding First Amendment right to have access to the Internet? Rights must be balanced, Sotomayor notes; one cannot necessarily be said to override all others.

2:36 p.m.

Finally, it's the junior guy's time. Democratic Sen. Al Franken makes an amusing point: he notes that it's intriguing that Sotomayor was inspired to become a prosecutor by watching Perry Mason. After all, Franken says, the hapless district attorney -- Hamilton Burger -- in that show lost every case.

Or rather, Franken specifies, every case but one. About which, he promises, we'll learn more later.