O n the third day of Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Senator Tom Coburn asked, "Do you believe that the court’s abortion rulings have ended the national controversy over this issue?" Sotomayor was curt: "No." Coburn went further: "You don’t have to name them, but do you think there are other similarly divisive issues that could be decided by the court in the future?" A measured Sotomayor again declined to get specific. "That, I can’t answer," she said. "I can only answer what exists. People are very passionate about the issues they believe in."