Ex-Republican Christopher Buckley writes in his satirical novel, Supreme Courtship, that “nothing raises the national temperature more than a VACANCY sign hanging from the colonnaded front of the Supreme Court.” This has certainly been true in the days since President Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor for the highest legal office in the land.

Much of the heated public debate on Sotomayor has focused on her intellect and her views on race. Republicans such as Newt Gingrich have tagged Sotomayor a “racist,” and anonymous lawyers have smeared her as “not that smart.” Judge Barrington Parker, also a member of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who has known Sotomayor since their time at Yale, dissents: “She’s smart, she’s prepared, she’s hardworking, and she has a lovely disposition.”

But in the swirl of discussion on Sotomayor’s public statements on race and society, too little attention has been paid to the forest of opinions and rulings that comprise her judicial record. Certainly, her life story is compelling—and reams of legalese are not as sexy as the question of whether a Latina is wiser than a white man—but it has obscured the real issue facing liberals evaluating the first Democratic appointment in 15 years: Is Sotomayor sufficiently progressive?

Despite the nominee’s pride in her Puerto Rican heritage, race is not an automatic passport to the progressive chorus. (See Thomas, Clarence and Steele, Michael.) There is no question that Sotomayor has an impressive record. Charles Ogletree, a professor at Harvard Law School and expert on civil rights law, notes that Sotomayor is “the most experienced judge to be nominated for the court for a long time.” As a legal scholar and former prosecutor who has seen federal cases from both sides of the bench, “she brings a wealth of experience with her” that outstrips even current Chief Justice John Roberts, who had only two years on the federal bench when he was nominated to the court. “It means something to have heard thousands of arguments and written hundreds of opinions, and she is well-versed in that,” he adds.

At the White House this week, Manhattan District Attorney and Sotomayor mentor Robert Morgenthau stressed her “outstanding” preparation over 10 years on the federal bench. But Sotomayor does not possess a clear record on issues near and dear to liberals. With the notable exception of her bench statement in the Ricci v. DeStefano affirmative action case in New Haven, the potential junior justice is notably silent on questions of abortion, affirmative action, gay marriage, torture and executive power, among other subjects.

This is primarily because the 2nd Circuit, based in New York City, tilts heavily toward commercial cases. Alan Schoenfeld, a former 2nd Circuit clerk for Sotomayor who is now practicing law in New York, says that “heavy duty commercial cases, criminal cases and immigration cases … make up 60 or 70 percent of the docket.” The body of nine judges deals frequently with whether a securities plaintiff has a valid complaint or whether the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules are valid. All of the court insiders consulted for this article uniformly stressed that this court, covering Connecticut, Vermont and New York, does not handle social issues. “In the entire 15 years I’ve been on the bench, I don’t think I’ve seen such a case,” says Parker. “Abortion never comes up. Affirmative action doesn’t come up. It’s a commercial court.”

Indeed, the White House has emphasized that the 2nd Circuit is among the more conservative federal benches in America, and that Sotomayor—no stranger to big business—is a “moderate.” In some ways, this is a clever way to speed along Obama’s first confirmation battle. But some liberal groups have worried openly about the absence of data on pet issues such as abortion and gay marriage. Liberal columnist E.J. Dionne called Sotomayor “the most conservative choice that President Obama could have made.” And NARAL Pro-Choice America issued a letter to supporters questioning her commitment to privacy rights.

With major elements of American jurisprudence at stake—from the Voting Rights Act to Roe v. Wade—how can Democrats be sure Sotomayor will advocate a theory of law that corresponds to liberalism?