On Sept. 8, the Supreme Court will hold a special invitation-only investiture ceremony at which Justice Sotomayor will take her seat on the dais for the first time. President Obama was not present at today’s swearing-in, but the White House will host a reception for Justice Sotomayor on Wednesday.

According to the Court’s Public Information Office, Sonia Sotomayor will be sworn in as an Associate Justice on Saturday, August 8, at 11 a.m. at the Supreme Court of the United States. Chief Justice Roberts will first administer the Constitutional Oath in a private ceremony in the Justices’ Conference Room attended by members of the Sotomayor family. The Chief Justice will then administer the Judicial Oath in the East Conference Room before a small gathering of Judge Sotomayor’s family and friends.

The Judicial Oath ceremony in the East Conference Room will be open to pool coverage. A formal investiture ceremony will take place on Tuesday, September 8, at 2 p.m. at a special sitting of the Court in the Courtroom. Further details regarding that ceremony and other opportunities for coverage will be provided as they become available.

After two days of floor debate, the Senate voted 68-31 to confirm Second Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor as a Justice of the Supreme Court.

Justice Sotomayor will be on the bench for the Sept. 9 reargument of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (08-205) and her first full term will begin Oct. 5. As the 111th Justice, she is the third female, third minority, and first Hispanic jurist to sit on the nation’s highest court. In filling the vacancy left by retired Justice David H. Souter, Justice Sotomayor is the 17th Justice in the bench’s fifth seat. At 55, she is the second youngest current Justice; Chief Justice John G. Roberts is 54.

The Senate session and vote can be watched on CSPAN2, available on most cable systems and C-SPAN.org. Video of Senators’ floor statements from earlier this week on Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation can be streamed here.

Sixty-four Senators have expressed commitment to vote for Judge Sotomayor and about 31 have expressed opposition, with five uncommitted. Below, I’ve listed the Senate vote on each of the currently seated Supreme Court Justices and retired Justice David H. Souter, whose seat Judge Sotomayor will fill:

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, September 29, 2005, 78 – 22

Justice Samuel A. Alito, January 31, 2006, 58 – 42

Justice Stephen G. Breyer, July 29, 1994, 87-9

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, August 03, 1993, 96-3

Justice Clarence Thomas, October 15, 1991, 52-48

Retired Justice David H. Souter, October 02, 1990, 90-9

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, February 03, 1988, 97-0

Justice Antonin Scalia,  September 17, 1986, 98-0

Justice John Paul Stevens, December 17, 1975, 98-0

C=SPAN reports that by its tally of public statements and direct reporting, a definite majority of Senators (52) have committed to support Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Twenty-seven Senators–all Republican–have said they will vote against her confirmation and 21 are undecided.

The Senate session will commence at 2:15  p.m. and can be streamed live on C-SPAN.org. A final vote in the Senate on Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation will almost certainly take place this week.

Former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., announced today that he will vote “no” when the full Senate considers the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. His floor statement is available here.

The Senate is expected to begin debate on Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation tomorrow. More than 20 Republican Senators have expressed that they will vote against Judge Sotomayor and have proposed a four-day floor debate before the vote.

By a vote of 13-6, the  Judiciary Committee voted to send the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the full Senate. In the two-hour commitee session, Senators reiterated their points from the four days of hearings and also looked to future of Supreme Court nominations.

The six Republican senators who voted against Judge Sotomayor each referenced his concern with her speeches and law review articles, but conceded that her bench record placed her in the mainstream of judicial philosophy. The minority committee members said they believed Judge Sotomayor had rejected President Obama’s “radical empathy standard” for Justices. Sen. Tom Coburn, Okla., said that he could not “vote for her because she wouldn’t defend what she said;” he would rather she had stood by her statements and proved why she will be an impartial judge. Sen. Charles Grassley, Iowa, was the only Senator to express regret that he had voted to confirm retired Justice David H. Souter in 1990.

The one Republican senator to vote for Judge Sotomayor, Sen. Lindsey Graham, S.C., said that “this empathy idea makes us all Dr. Phils.”  But Sen. Graham also demonstrated some empathy, stating that he understood the perspective of his Democratic colleagues who had voted for Chief Justice John G. Roberts in 2005. He said he was voting for a person he would not have chosen, but recognized is well-qualified. Sen. Graham maintained the candor he showed during the hearings and said that Judge Sotomayor’s nomination is not a major shift in the balance of power on the Court: she can be “no worse than Souter” in the Republican point of view.

Throughout the hearings, broad discussion of legal theory and the direction of the Court were rare, but percolated below the Senators’ questioning on specific precedents.  Sen. John Cornyn, Tex. said he thought the hearings process showed a consensus that “original intent, not foreign law” is the proper mode of Constitutional interpretation and approached an agreement with the Hamiltonian vision of the Judiciary outlined in Federalist 78. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, R.I., said that his Republican colleagues are entitled to their point of view on the law, but “resists the effort to define that as a judicial norm against which any other view is to be seen as an abberation.” He sharply stated that he believes the Repubilcan “definition of justice in America is just plain wrong, both as history and as justice.”

Looking ahead to future vacancies on the Court, Sen. Charles Schumer, N.Y., said this process has shown that Republican colleagues will never support anyone nominated by President Obama, no matter how moderate her record. There was a bipartisan call for reform of the advise and consent process, as Senators agreed that the hearings in recent years have become “theater” in which the nominee avoids making any candid statement about her views. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wisc., recommended that before future hearings, a bipartisan group should be assembled of Judiciary committee members, members of the bar, constitutional scholars, and members of the media to  draft questions on which the committee can expect specific answers from the nominee.

Video of the session can be seen here.

Two more Republican Senate Judiciary committee members announced today their intentions to vote “nay” on Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Sen. John Cornyn’s floor statement is here and Sen. Orrin Hatch’s floor statement is here.

Sen. Cornyn, Tex., said: “I will vote against confirmation of Judge Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. I will vote with the certain knowledge that she will be confirmed despite my vote. I wish her well. I congratulate her on her historic achievement. I know she will be an inspiration to young people – within the Hispanic community and beyond.”

Sen. Hatch, Utah, said: “After thoroughly reviewing Judge Sotomayor’s record and being able to hear her testimony and responses during the hearing process, I reluctantly, and with a heavy heart, have found that I cannot support her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. In truth, I wish President Obama had chosen a Hispanic nominee that all Senators could support. I believe it would have done a great deal for our great country. Although Judge Sotomayor has a compelling life story and dedication to public service, her statements and record were too much at odds with the principles about the judiciary in which I deeply believe.”

Sen. Hatch voted for Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation to the Second Circuit in 1998.

Ranking Minority member Sen. Jeff Sessions, Ala., has not expressed how he intends to vote nor have Republican Senators Charles Grassley, Iowa, and Tom Coburn, Okla.  Sen. Lindsey Graham, S.C., is the only Republican member of the Judiciary committee to say that he will vote for Judge Sotomayor.

A committee vote is scheduled, but not guaranteed to occur, next Tuesday, July 28.

Earlier today, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., announced on the Senate floor that he intends to vote in favor of Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination for the Supreme Court, while Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., announced that he will vote against her nomination. Kyl talked to Jan Crawford Greenburg of ABC News’ Legalities blog about his decision here. Video of Sen. Graham’s remarks is available on C-SPAN here.

The Senate Judiciary committee has postponed a vote on Judge Sotomayor’s nomination until next Tuesday,  July 28.  Four Republican Senators who are not on the committee–Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Richard Lugar of Indiana and Mel Martinez of Florida — have announced they will vote for Sotomayor when a vote comes before the full Senate. Judge Sotomayor is expected to be confirmed before the Senate recesses in August and to be seated by the time Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (08-205) is reargued before the Court (Sept. 9).

Senators Sessions, Grassley, Kyl, Coburn, and Cornyn submitted questions to Judge Sonia Sotomayor at the end of last week’s confirmation hearings and today she returned 50 pages of written responses, available here.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Judge Sotomayor’s nomination tomorrow at 10 a.m. (but it is uncertain whether the vote will occur). The meeting will be web cast here.

Beginning at 9:00 a.m. EDT, we will provide as-it-happens coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Readers do not need to refresh their browsers while in this window, but in the case of technical problems on this site, the LiveBlog can be followed here

Beginning at 9:00 a.m. EDT, we will provide as-it-happens coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Readers do not need to refresh their browsers while in this window, but in the case of technical problems on this site, the LiveBlog can be followed here

Beginning at 9:30 a.m. EDT, we will provide as-it-happens coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Readers do not need to refresh their browsers while in this window, but in the case of technical problems on this site, the LiveBlog can be followed here

Here’s NPR’s one-hour special on Judge Sotomayor’s first day of confirmation hearings.

Our blog’s live coverage will begin at 9:30 a.m. EDT tomorrow.

As the New York Times highlighted this weekend, the image of the judge as umpire has become a dominant analogy in discussions of judicial restraint. Chief Justice John G. Roberts said in the opening remarks of his own confirmation hearings in 2005:  ”Judges are like umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules; they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules. But it is a limited role.”  Today, members of the Senate Judiciary committee frequently used this statement to frame their opinions about what role Judge Sonia Sotomayor might play on the Supreme Court (the rare venue in which sitting on the bench is a good thing).

An (incomplete) review of the senators’ written statements and oral testimony finds the phrase “balls and strikes” used 11 times, “umpire” or “umpires” used 16 times, and “playing field” used twice today. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Tex., perhaps appealing to his Big 12 base, went for a football simile instead. Once all of the written statements are submitted to the record and the transcripts are finalized, I’ll update with a complete word count. Excerpts of the senators’ sports infused language are below the jump:

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