Earlier today, President Obama named Sonia Sotomayor as his Supreme Court nominee. This makes judge Sotomayor the first Hispanic nominee for the high court and, if confirmed, she would become the third women to serve. This historic nomination warrants a rather serious question: Who is Sonia Sotomayor?
Background
Sonia Sotomayor is currently a federal judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for he Second Circuit. Prior to this, she served as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She was nominated to her district court position by President George H.W. Bush and to her current one by President Bill Clinton. In all, she has 16 years of court experience, providing her with more experience as a judge than any current member of the high court had when nominated.
Sotomayor’s parents traveled from Puerto Rico to New York during World War II and settled in a public housing project in the Bronx. Her father, a factory worker who spoke no english, died when she was only 9 years old. Her mother worked two jobs as a nurse so that she could send her two children to Catholic school.
Education
Sotomayor attended Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. While there, she was the co-recipient of the M. Taylor Pyne Prize, the highest honor Princeton awards to an undergraduate. She subsequently attended Yale Law School, where she served as the editor of the Yale Law Journal and the managing editor of the Yale Studies in World Public Order.
Legal Career
After law school, Sotomayor spent 5 years as a prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney. She then entered private practice and gained substantial experience as a commercial litigator. In her 1992 Senate confirmation hearings, her substantial pro bono activities during her time in private practice were much touted:
For 12 years she was a top policy maker on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. She was also on the board of the State of New York Mortgage Agency, where she helped provide mortgage insurance coverage to low-income housing and AIDS hospices. In her leisure time she became a founding member of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, which distributes public money for city campaigns.
What Happens Now?
The Senate Judiciary Committee will likely conduct hearings in the third week of July, allowing written committee questions the following week and a floor vote before Congress leaves for its summer recess on August 7. This could potentially have the new Justice taking her seat by the time the Court opens its 2009 Term on October 5.
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