Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) provided a tough round of questions for Judge Sonia Sotomayor during her U.S. Supreme Court nomination hearings today. Trying to get at the heart of the "empathy" issue, Senator Kyl quoted President Obama's comments after he voted against Chief Justice John Roberts during his confirmation hearings. According to a post on the Washington Wire, the Wall Street Journal, Kyl asked Sotomayor if she agreed with President Obama's opinion that the approach to judging is "that the law only takes you the first 25 miles of a marathon and the final mile must be determined by what is in the judge's heart." According to the posting:

"No, sir, I wouldn't approach the issue of judging the way the president does," Sotomayor said. "Judges can't rely on what's in their heart. They don't determine the law. Congress makes the laws. The job of a judge is to apply the law."

She added, "It's not the heart that compels conclusions in cases, it's the law."

Kyl, like other Republicans, has expressed displeasure with Obama's comment that a judge should have "empathy," which Kyl emphasized is a nonlegal concept. He asked Sotomayor whether she has ever heard a lawyer say that he could not rely on the law, but had to appeal to empathy or some other nonlegal idea.

"Exactly, sir," Sotomayor said. "We apply law to facts. We don’t apply feelings to facts."