Adam Liptak has this story in the NYT headlined, "Sotomayor Faces Heavy Workload of Complex Cases," but of course the Supreme Court as a whole is facing these cases.

A former prosecutor, district and appellate court judge, she has a more fully developed record on criminal issues. Her views are in some ways more conservative than those of Justice Souter, meaning that this is an area where her vote may make a difference.

"I would have expected her to have voted against subjecting scientific experts to cross-examination," said Craig M. Bradley, a law professor at Indiana University, referring to a 5-to-4 decision from the court in June. The decision, with Justice Souter in the majority, ruled that crime laboratory reports may not be used against criminal defendants at trial unless the analysts responsible for creating them give testimony and subject themselves to cross-examination.

The court has agreed to hear a follow-up case, and the new justice will have to consider whether to narrow the scope of the decision from June, Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts. [Briscoe v. Virginia, No. 07-11191.]

A pair of cases concerning whether the Constitution allows juvenile offenders to be sentenced to life without parole for crimes in which no one was killed will also illuminate Justice Sotomayor's views on harsh punishments. They may also answer a question not fully resolved at her confirmation hearings, that of whether she will look to the decision of foreign courts in considering the issue, as the court did in barring the execution of juvenile offenders in 2005. [Graham v. Florida, No. 08-7412 and Sullivan v. Florida, No. 08-7621.]

I am not so sanguine that she will be "more conservative" than Justice Souter, meaning presumably more attuned to public safety and less to the defense side. Justice Souter himself was considered "conservative" in this regard at the time of his appointment and for a few years thereafter, and then he drifted. Still, Justice Sotomayor has enough of a record to be confident she will not be another Justice Brennan, for which the nation can breathe a collective sigh of relief.