Collins With Sotomayor

CQ:

"She assured me that she understands when deciding cases that she needs to put aside any personal experiences that might color her decisions and, as she said it, that the law is the law," Collins said.

Collins said she was "somewhat frustrated" that Sotomayor would not discuss perhaps her most controversial case, Ricci v. DeStefano, in which Sotomayor was part of a three-judge panel that upheld a district court ruling against a group of New Haven, Conn., firefighters who alleged discrimination.

Collins said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit had reached an "unfair result" in the case. But, Collins said, Sotomayor declined to comment on the case because it is pending before the Supreme Court.

(By way of comparison, you can get a sense of the junior senator's ferocious reaction to disclosures about then-Judge Samuel Alito's staunchly anti-Roe views here.)