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9:31	Ben Pershing - Good morning everyone. Here's the lineup for Day 4: We've got a dozen more senators waiting to ask their second round of questions, and then we'll move on to the witnesses for and against Sotomayor. Here's the full list of witnesses.

9:34	[Comment From Maryland ] Are all witnesses speaking?

9:34	Ben Pershing - Yes, all of the scheduled witnesses will get the chance to speak, though it's not clear how much time each will get.

9:35	Ben Pershing - Kyl begins with a joke about the temperature in the room, which we noted yesterday. The AC broke and it got very warm.

9:36	Jerry Markon - Kyl is starting with the controversial Ricci case...

9:37

Jerry Markon - Frank Ricci, the named plaintiff in the case, is scheduled to testify today, along with another New Haven firefighter. Sotomayor, along with other judges, ruled against white firefighters who sued after the city threw out a promotions exam because not enough black and Hispanic firefighters qualified for advancement.

9:39	Jerry Markon - Kyl is grilling Sotomayor on Ricci, saying her and her colleagues were wrong in saying their decision was partly based on Supreme Court precedent...

9:40	Jerry Markon - This is a very complicated case, and the exchange going on right now is so legalistic that it's hard to see how Republicans can benefit much more from it...

9:41

[Comment From Jeanne,Asheville NC ]
Since the witness list is divided into Majority and Minority witnesses, do we presume that the Majority ones will be speaking in support of appointment and the Minority ones will be in opposition to the appointment? Is there some limit to the number of witnesses? It seems like an awfully long list.

9:41

Ben Pershing - Yes, it's a fair guess that the majority witnesses will speak in favor of Sotomayor and the minority witnesses will criticize her in some fashion, though they may not oppose her confirmation outright. The witness list is long but not unusually so compared to past nomination hearings.

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