Twenty Utah law professors have joined 1,200 others nationwide in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee urging confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"As a federal judge at both the trial and appellate levels, Judge Sotomayor has distinguished herself as a brilliant, careful, fair-minded jurist whose rulings exhibit unfailing adherence to the rule of law," the letter says.

One of the Utahns who signed it, Frederick Gedicks, the Guy Anderson chair and professor of law at Brigham Young University, said, "Judge Sotomayor will bring to the Supreme Court an excellent record in the law and more federal judicial experience than any nominee in recent memory."

The letter was signed by law professors from every state except Alaska, which does not have a law school.

Signing the letter were 16 law professors from the University of Utah and four from BYU.

U. professors who signed were Robert W. Adler, Reyes Aguilar, Jensie L. Anderson, Hiram Chodosh, Leslie Pickering Francis, Erika George, James R. Holbrook, Laura Kessler, Terry S. Kogan, William J. Lockhart, Chibli Mallat, John Martinez, Scott M. Matheson Jr., Daniel Medwed, Bonnie Mitchell and Clifford J. Rosky.

BYU professors who signed it were Gedicks, Jim Backman, David Dominguez and D. Carolina N?nez.

Confirmation hearings on Sotomayor are scheduled to begin Monday. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is a senior member of the Judiciary Committee and is expected to take a leading role for the GOP in questioning Sotomayor.

E-mail: lee@desnews.com