Getting the facts about Sonia Sotomayor

Today we launch our coverage of the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The criticism of Sotomayor actually began long before President Barack Obama made the announcement at the White House. Some conservative legal groups spent the past several weeks researching the record of Sotomayor and other possible candidates and had already posted material on the Web.

We examined a claim by the Republican National Committee that Sotomayor believes the appellate court “makes policy.” We found that claim to be

Half True

.

We’ll be fact-checking the claims about Sotomayor — pro and con — over the next few weeks. Today we begin with an examination of President Obama’s claim that she has more experience than the sitting justices. We found that one wasn’t as clear-cut as we expected and that, contrary to his suggestion, that she had roughly the same experience as the other justices. So we gave it a

Half True

.