Jeffrey Toobin says Justice Sotomayor will probably vote very much the way Justice Souter did.

The Supreme Court starts its new term this morning. Justice Sonia Sotomayor will make her debut on the bench and there are also some critical cases on the docket to talk about.

CNN Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin, author of the best-selling book "The Nine, spoke with John Roberts on CNN's "American Morning" Monday.

John Roberts: So what impact do you think Justice Sonia Sotomayor is going to have on the court and how do you think she'll be different than Souter was?

Jeffrey Toobin: Initially, probably not that much. I think she'll probably vote very much the way Souter did. She seems to be a moderate liberal, he was a moderate liberal. But over time there certainly could be an influence. You know, the liberal block of the court has been pretty old in recent years. Justice Stevens is 89 years old, Justice Ginsburg is 76. The fact that there is this injection of new blood that she's only in her mid-50s. Justice Stevens likely to leave, likely to be replaced by President Obama with another liberal, that could generate some force on the liberal side even though they are basically outnumbered.

Roberts: Hard to think that someone in their mid-50s could be considered new blood.

Toobin: Your name sake, the Chief Justice Roberts, I loved the way they always talked about him, he's so young, so young. Good for us.

Roberts: People obviously will be looking for rookie mistakes to be made, but she's got 17 years on the bench, she proved herself when they had that rare September hearing on the Hilary Clinton movie, that she's not just going to just sit back and let the other ones take the lead she jumped in there and asked a lot of questions.

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CNN Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin calls Judge Sonia Sotomayor 'a cautious, careful liberal.'

By Jeffrey Toobin
CNN Senior Analyst

(CNN) - One of the enduring myths about Supreme Court justices is that they often turn out to "surprise" the presidents who appoint them. Sure-thing conservatives, it is said, turn out to be liberals, ­and vice versa. In fact, the evidence is almost entirely the opposite: that with justices, as in life, what you see is what you get.

The question, then, is this: What do you see when you look at Sonia Sotomayor, who begins her confirmation hearings as a strong favorite for confirmation?

She is, above all, a veteran judge ­who has 18 years on the federal bench: six as a trial judge (appointed by President George H.W. Bush) and the rest on the court of appeals (appointed by President Clinton). The question of competence is closed. Sotomayor can do the job. It's no surprise that she received a unanimous rating of well-qualified from the American Bar Association screening committee.

But what would she stand for as a Supreme Court justice? She is, it seems, a liberal,­ but a liberal in the cautious and careful mode of her likely future colleagues Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

Her leanings are clearest in the case of affirmative action. As a political and constitutional matter, she believes government can take steps to assure a diverse work force or student body.

This view was on display in the most famous (or infamous) decision of her career.

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Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor testifies during the second day of her confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill July 14, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sonia Sotomayor faced tough questioning Tuesday on political issues and controversial statements from her past, with both Democrats and Republicans saying she responded well and appeared certain to win confirmation as the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.

The 55-year-old federal appeals judge conceded she made a bad play on words in saying in 2001 that a "wise Latina woman" could reach a better conclusion than a white man.

Otherwise, her calm answers to questions by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a wide range of issues - abortion, gun control, presidential powers, the death penalty - displayed a command of legal concepts that impressed her harshest interrogators.

Do you accept Sotomayor's "wise Latina" explanation? Tell us your thoughts.

Editor's note: Laura Gómez is professor of law and American studies at the University of New Mexico. Gómez, who has a Ph.D. in sociology and a law degree from Stanford University, is the author of "Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race."

Laura Gómez says Sonia Sotomayor's 'wise Latina' comment has been taken out of context.

By Laura E. Gómez
Special to CNN

(CNN) - It is likely that Judge Sotomayor will face some questions from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week about her 2001 "wise Latina" remark.

In a speech at a Berkeley conference on Hispanic judges, Sotomayor said, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

Her comment has been lampooned on the cover of the National Review, where cartoonists apparently could not quite fathom a wise Latina judge, choosing to portray Sotomayor as a Buddha with Asian features. It has caused Rush Limbaugh and others to label her a "racist," and it has caused even liberals to bristle.

I was a speaker at the conference Sotomayor's speech kicked off, and I would like to put her comment in context.

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Related: Sotomayor: 'Wise Latina' remark a bad choice

"...Wise Latina woman..." – Republicans have seized on those words from Judge Sonia Sotomayor to question whether she would use race to play favorites on the high court. But Sotomayor is hardly the first Supreme Court hopeful who was once outspoken on the subject of race. CNN's Jim Acosta reports.

Watch: Sotomayor explains 'wise Latina' remark

Nobody could accuse Senate Republicans of showing their touchy-feely side Monday.

GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee took careful aim at Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s qualifications to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court by expressing their disdain for any judge using empathy when making judicial decisions.

First up, Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah), who posed the question: “Must judges set aside, or may judges consider, their personal feelings in deciding cases?”

His fellow Republicans were quick to answer:

Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa): “This empathy standard is trouble to me. In fact, I’m concerned that judging based on empathy is really just legislating from the bench.”

Senator Jon Kyl (R-Arizona): “If judges routinely started ruling on the basis of their personal feelings, however well-intentioned, the entire legitimacy of the judicial system would be jeopardized.”

And Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama): “Call it empathy, call it prejudice, or call it sympathy, but whatever it is, it is not law. In truth it is more akin to politics. And politics has no place in the courtroom.”

Why the big concern about empathy?

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Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee July 13, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (CNN) – U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said Monday that her hotly disputed judicial philosophy is, in fact, quite simple: Remain faithful to the law.

"In the past month, many senators have asked me about my judicial philosophy," Sotomayor told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee during her opening statement at her confirmation hearings.

"It is simple: fidelity to the law. The task of a judge is not to make law, it is to apply the law. And it is clear, I believe, that my record ... reflects my rigorous commitment to interpreting the Constitution according to its terms, interpreting statutes according to their terms and Congress's intent and hewing faithfully to precedents established by the Supreme Court and by my Circuit Court. In each case I have heard, I have applied the law to the facts at hand."

Sotomayor said the "process of judging is enhanced when the arguments and concerns of the parties to the litigation are understood and acknowledged."

Do you support Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court? Tell us your thoughts.

Ed Gillespie played a key role on behalf of the Bush administration in the confirmation hearings of Justices Roberts and Alito.

After weeks of meeting senators and preparing for tough questions, Sonia Sotomayor today begins the formal hearings on her nomination to become the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.

Ed Gillespie, former counselor to President George W. Bush, knows what it's like to shepherd a judicial nominee through the Senate. He played a key role on behalf of the Bush administration for the confirmation hearings of Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts. He spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Monday.

Kiran Chetry: You were there for the last two times a nominee was getting ready to sit in the hot seat – Justices Roberts and Alito. What goes on in the days and hours before these hearings get set to begin for the nominees?

Ed Gillespie: Well you sift through the information you glean from the visits, the one-on-one visits that the nominee had with the senators. You try to determine what are likely questions to come up in the hearing. And the nominee in this case, Judge Sotomayor, obviously, will have some pretty firm views in response to those questions. And you just help in terms of shaping body language and the contours of the response and help give the nominee some guidance as to what to expect from the committee process. You know, judges aren't accustomed to being judged. And that's the position that Judge Sotomayor will be in for the next couple of days.

Chetry: Many say one issue for Sotomayor that she's sure to be questioned about are those comments she made at UC Berkeley back in 2001 where she said I hope a "wise Latina woman with the richness her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." Senator Mitch McConnell said it's a “troubling philosophy for any judge – let alone one nominated to the highest court – to convert ‘empathy’ into favoritism for particular groups.” That's just a sampling of what she might get from some of the GOP senators. How does she best handle questions about that comment?

Gillespie: I think she has to make clear that any personal perspectives that she has articulated in the past in speeches haven't translated into rulings. I don't know that that’s the case. I think that's one of the things that would be weighed in the course of these hearings. She also said that your gender, your ethnicity – that you bring to bear what facts you choose to see. And I think people ask why would a judge choose to see some facts and not others? She'll be given the opportunity to respond to those questions. Those responses are important. This is a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States. You want people going before the Supreme Court regardless of their race or gender or ethnicity to have confidence that the rulings that will come and be issued and promulgated won't be based on that race, that gender, that ethnicity. And so these are important questions and I'm glad she'll have the opportunity in public to provide an answer.

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Senators want to learn everything about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor during her confirmation hearing. Her brother Juan remembers learning very early – his sister loves the law.

To explain, he walked us down memory lane in the Bronx where they grew up in a public housing project.

In the sixties, when Juan and his sister Sonia were growing up, she wasn't interested in watching “The Munsters” or “Bewitched.”

“My sister forced me to watch ‘Perry Mason’ and ‘Judd for the Defense.’…She knew she was going to be a lawyer,” says Dr. Juan Sotomayor.

They were big dreams for the inner-city girl whose parents were immigrants from Puerto Rico. The children lost their father when Sonia was nine. Their mother, who eventually became a nurse, was a strong believer in education.

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In this handout image provided by The White House on May 26, 2009, Judge Sonia Sotomayor poses for a photograph in 2009. Getty Images

WASHINGTON (CNN) - After weeks of meeting senators and preparing for tough questions, Sonia Sotomayor on Monday begins the formal hearings on her nomination to become the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will start considering whether Sotomayor should be the 111th person to sit on the nation's highest court. If confirmed, she would be the third woman justice.

Sotomayor, 55, received a good-luck telephone call Sunday from President Obama, according to a White House statement.

Obama "complimented the judge for making courtesy calls to 89 senators in which she discussed her adherence to the rule of law throughout her 17 years on the federal bench," the statement said. "The president expressed his confidence that Judge Sotomayor would be confirmed to serve as a justice on the Supreme Court for many years to come."

Democrats who hold a majority in both the Judiciary Committee and the full Senate predict she will easily win approval from both.

Do you support Sotomayor's confirmation? Tell us what you think.