The Senate Judiciary Committee questions Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor for the second day. Artistic accuracy note: today,  she is wearing black.

9:59 a.m

Asked if the White House officials ever asked her about her views on abortion, Sotomayor says she was never asked her views on any issue. Then why, Cornyn wonders, do Sotomayor's supporters including her former partner in private practice say she is certainly supportive of abortion rights?

Sotomayor notes she voted in favor of upholding the Mexico City policy by which Republican administrations cut off funding for international family planning. She adds that her former corporate law partner surely wasn't familiar with the totality of her work on the federal bench.

Ahh yes, and now Cornyn returns again to the Ricci firefighter case. He reminds everyone he was a judge once himself. Which is true: Cornyn served six years as a Texas district judge and seven years on the Texas Supreme Court, both of them elected positions.

9:45 a.m.

A Cornyn question about some Suffolk University Law Review article -- in which Sotomayor spoke of judges changing law and society -- allows Sotomayor to run out the clock a bit before Cornyn reins her back in. Good clock management by Sotomayor: long answers soak up the time, reduce time for troublesome questions, show grasp of facts.

9:38 a.m.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn evidently believes there is still blood to be wrung from the rock, Sotomayor's reference to the Wise Latina. Sotomayor summons again and again her rhetorical best friend, former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who had once spoken of a "wise woman" making good judgments.

"It is clear from the attention that my words have gotten...that my words failed, they didn't work," Sotomayor says, before again summoning the words both of O'Connor and Alito for the proposition that life experiences helps a judge "understand."


9:30 a.m.

The first round of questions resumes with Republican Sen. John Cornyn, with each senator still allotted 30 minutes. Following the first round, senators who choose to may have a second round of 20 minutes. Just in case, you know, there's something else about the Wise Latina/Ricci case/Nunchucks they haven't yet explored sufficiently.