Over at NRO's Bench Memos, Ed Whelan speculates that there may be "Political Corruption" at the Congressional Research Service because it recently issued a report on selected opinions by Judge Sotomayor. Concluding his post, Whelan asks:

Just wondering: Has CRS ever before prepared an assessment of the record of a Supreme Court nominee?

It took me some time, but I think I figured out the answer for him. Yes.

UPDATE: Whelan has now acknowledged the existence of CRS reports on Judge Alito's opinions:

I've learned from Tony Mauro that CRS did some reports on then-Judge Alito's cases in connection with his Supreme Court nomination. A quick Google search discloses at least three such reports-one on Alito's abortion opinions, one on his “freedom of speech” opinions, and one on his environmental opinions.

But does the CRS have a “long history” of issuing these reports, as they claim? "[U]nclear," says Whelan:

According to Mauro, a CRS spokeswoman says that “CRS 'has a long history of supporting the Senate's advice and consent role' in judicial nominations with such research.” Whether that means that reports like those done on Sotomayor and Alito were done previously is unclear.

Signs point to yes.