Is Bob McDonnell’s thesis fair game? As our editorial, “Thesis Ridiculous” intimated on Tuesday, conservatives who pored over Michelle Obama’s thesis at Princeton hardly have standing to say it isn’t. The Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus provides a more recent and more trenchant comparison. “Just a few weeks ago,“ she notes, “Republicans were focused on a single sentence from Justice Sonia Sotomayor about the ‘wise Latina.‘ Then, it made sense to focus on Sotomayor’s sentence, not her copious judicial record. Now, it’s unfair to look at McDonnell’s writings when his legislative history is open for all to see.“

President Barack Obama celebrated the rise of Sonia Sotomayor to be the Supreme Court’s newest member and first Hispanic, saying her story and achievement will be an inspiration for generations.

Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation to the Supreme Court wrapped up a foregone conclusion. Conservative interest groups and senators played their appointed roles during the confirmation hearings, as did those on the other side of the aisle. But the outcome never was in serious doubt. Sotomayor replaces David Souter. The evidence from their respective records suggests she will not greatly change the high court’s ideological composition. That was one of the principal reasons opposition to her appointment was fairly tame. (The other, of course, was her twofer status as a female Hispanic.) If Antonin Scalia were hit by a bus and President Obama were to replace him with someone such as the Ninth Circuit’s Steven Reinhardt, perhaps the most liberal judge on the most liberal court in the land, debate would reach Borkian levels—and deserve to.

Sonia Sotomayor makes history as the Supreme Court’s first Hispanic justice The vote was 68-31 as she becomes the 111th justice and just the third woman to serve.

Margaret Wente, The Globe and Mail: The Democrats have Sonia Sotomayor. The Republicans have Sarah Palin. That’s all you really need to know. Between them, these two women explain why the Republicans are doomed. Sonia Sotomayor . . . is a symbol of Hispanic aspirations in a country where Hispanics are an increasingly powerful political force. She’s known for her ferocious drive and work ethic and, despite what you may hear, she appears to be a moderate. She represents the American dream in action. The Republicans hate her.

Supreme Court aspirant Sonia Sotomayor said Tuesday that she considers the question of abortion rights a settled precedent and says there is a constitutional right to privacy.

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said an oft-criticized remark about her Hispanic heritage affecting judicial decisions was a rhetorical device gone awry.

Although Republican senators will put a few pointed questions to Sonia Sotomayor during her confirmation hearings, which started yesterday, the general sense is that they will go easier on her than they might because they don’t want to come across as beating up on a Hispanic woman. That’s not exactly the soft bigotry of low expectations—nobody has suggested Sotomayor couldn’t hold her own in a verbal slugfest. But it is racist and sexist, if by those terms one means applying different standards to different people based solely on their race and gender.

WASHINGTON—Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor introduced herself yesterday to the Senate Judiciary Committee by reciting her up-from-the-bootstraps background and taking on her critics, vowing that a judge’s role is “not to make law. It is to apply the law.“ “In the past month, many senators have asked me about my judicial philosophy,“ the first Hispanic Supreme Court nominee said. “It’s simple: fidelity to the law.“

Anti-abortion protesters twice disrupted the opening of Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court nomination hearing on Monday.

Supreme Court nominee’s remarks appeared aimed at Republicans who have questioned her commitment to impartiality in light of a 2001 remark that experience as a “wise Latina” might give her an advantage.

Starting tomorrow, the United States Senate will hold a confirmation hearing for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court. As the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, I have pledged that this hearing will be fair and respectful—but also thorough and rigorous. If confirmed, Judge Sotomayor will have the power to define the meaning of our Constitution for the entire nation. This is an awesome responsibility—determining the rights and freedoms for every man, woman, and child in America.

Brief comments on a variety of topics currently in the news . . . .

• With the Obama administration springing Guantanamo-housed terrorists and, e.g., funding Hamas-dominated Gaza to the tune of $900 million (etc.), how far we have come from George Bush’s admonition: “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.“

Sonia Sotomayor and several conservative judges agree: The Heller decision recognizing an individual right to keep and bear arms does not apply to states and localities until the Supreme Court says it does. Conservatives traditionally have embraced such an approach. Sotomayor has taken flak from gun-rights advocates who object to a ruling she joined regarding a case concerning nunchaku, or martial-arts flails. The other day 7th Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook said much the same regarding Chicago’s ban on pistols. He was joined by Richard Posner, a jurist often liked by conservatives despite his curious view that the Constitution’s meaning depends on economic cost-benefit calculations.

President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court and promptly left town. The preceding week hardly could go down as a high point for him or his administration—but maybe, in certain ways, as a period of personal growth. Time for a break. Think about it. The week had featured these items on an incomplete list, most related one way or another to national security: