If there’s a knock on Sotomayor, it’s not inexperience

With a date set for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, the one thing GOP member's won't be able to criticize is her level of experience.

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Yuri Gripas/REUTERS
US Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor meets with Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

The battle over Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation to the Supreme Court has moved into high gear, with the Senate Judiciary Committee setting hearings for July 13. Some on Capitol Hill are predicting an all-out Republican fight on this one. Others predict there will be some spirited GOP questioning, enough to mollify the base, but not much more - after all, the Latino vote can swing as many as 56 electoral votes in the Southwest and Florida.

Barring a major surprise, Democrats are feeling pretty confident that she'll be approved and that she has the legal experience needed for the job.

Quick Quiz! Sotomayor, with more than six years of district court and more than 10 years of appeals court experience, goes before the committee with more years of total experience in the federal courts than any Supreme Court justice since ...?

Since the legendary Justice Horace Harmon Lurton, who served for 17 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit before going to the high court in 1910. Lurton, a former Confederate soldier, served only four years before he died.

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