Day 1 of Sotomayor hearing: no ‘meltdown’ yet

The hearings began Monday for Sonia Sotomayor, President Barack Obama’s first nominee to the Supreme Court, but there weren’t any fireworks.

The senators on the Judiciary Committee made opening statements. Sotomayor made an opening statement. End of Day 1.

In fact, Sen. Linsdey Graham went so far as to predict confirmation as long as Sotomayor avoids a “complete meltdown,” which got a laugh in the hearing room and at PolitiFact headquarters.

We’ve checked two items to mark the hearing’s start:

• Sen. Graham spoke about the need for senators to vote based on competence, not ideology. He said there was a time when nominees like Antonin Scalia and Ruth Ginsburg got 95-plus votes. We checked the historical record and found that was correct, so we rated Graham’s statement

True

. Be sure to read the

complete item

to see what Graham had to say about Sotomayor and the possibility of “complete meltdown.”

• Sen. Jon Kyl, speaking on a Sunday morning news show, said a new poll showed people “oppose her confirmation. Only 37 percent support it.” We looked at the poll and found results that were ambiguous, so we rated Kyl’s statement

Half True

. Read the

complete item

to find out what the poll actually showed.