Firefighters Drop In on Sotomayor

The New Haven Fire Department arrived in uniform on Capitol Hill today to watch the third day of Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, the New York Times reports. So far talk has swirled around abortion, with Sotomayor refuting reports that the Obama administration had given her a “litmus test” on the issue, and gun control.

Pressed by Tom Coburn over whether a person had a right to self-defense, Sotomayor explained that, if faced with an immediate threat, it would be legal to use force to defend oneself. But if someone, say Coburn, were to threaten her, and she went home, got a gun, and shot him, that "might not be legal." The room burst out laughing, with Coburn quipping, “You’d have lots of ‘splaining to do.” (More Sonia Sotomayor stories.)