If, as is now expected, President Barack Obama nominates Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit to replace Justice David Souter, it will be a historic first for the Court: the first Hispanic, and the third woman on the nation's highest court.
From the moment on May 1 when Justice David Souter announced his plan to retire, Sotomayor, 54, was viewed as a leading contender for the spot. Judge Diane Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit appeared to take the lead last week.
But in a C-SPAN interview aired over the weekend, Obama emphasized again the need for a “common touch,” a quality that seemed to point toward someone with Sotomayor’s background.
Born of parents from Puerto Rico, Sotomayor was raised in the housing projects of the South Bronx. Because her parents both spoke Spanish, she was fluent in Spanish before English. She was diagnosed with diabetes at age 8, not long before her father died. Sotomayor persevered and went to Princeton University, then Yale Law School, where she was editor of the law journal.
Her interest in becoming a lawyer, she once said, was fueled by Nancy Drew novels and Perry Mason on television.
Sotomayor returned to New York to work as an assistant district attorney from 1979 to 1984. She went into private practice as a commercial litigator at Pavia & Harcourt in New York until President George H.W. Bush named her to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She was confirmed in 1992 and served until President Bill Clinton appointed her to the 2nd Circuit where she started serving in October 1998.
Her record as a judge will provide fodder for supporters and critics. Conservatives have already vowed a vigorous fight based on her decisions and public statements.
As a trial judge in 1995, she was acclaimed as “the savior of baseball” for issuing an order against team owners that ended the baseball strike.
Sotomayor has gained a reputation as tough questioner -– some say too tough -– and has issued rulings that she will no doubt be asked about. One decision she participated in is now pending before the Supreme Court. She was part of a panel that upheld the city of New Haven’s decision not to certify a promotion exam for firefighters because not enough minorities passed it. The whites (and one Hispanic) who did pass, but did not get promotions, claim they were victims of discrimination based on race. The ruling Sotomayor joined has been criticized as cursory, and the New Haven firefighters could be compelling witnesses against her.
In this story last week, we looked at other decisions by Sotomayor that could be raised at her confirmation hearing. Here also is a New York Law Journal article analyzing her rulings.
A potentially controversial statement she made during a 2001 commencement address has also recently surfaced: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”
More updates here throughout this historic day.
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