Posts Tagged ‘supreme court’
Obama Nominates Sonia Sotomayor to Supreme Court
Sonya Sotomayor appointed to supreme court - photo courtesy of newsday
President Barack Obama appointed federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court today. She may become the first judge of Hispanic ethnicity to wear the robe of justice. The vacancy was created by retiring Justice David Souter.
In order to become Supreme Court judge, Sonya Sotomayor, 54, will first have to be confirmed by the senate. Her nomination is expected to be confirmed by the Democratic controlled senate.
Sotomayor is said to have more years of juducial experience than any judge currently serving.
Obama said in a public statement that he wanted “a justice who combined intellect and empathy — the ability to understand the troubles of everyday Americans.”
Sotomayor grew up in a Bronx housing project when her parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico. She has wanted to be a judge since the age of 9.
Sotomayor attended Princeton and then went on to Yale Law School. Her professional career started when she became a New York assistant district attorney. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan later recommended her as a district court nominee to George Bush Sr.
Sotomayor’s nomination does not come with praise from everyone, however. Some former court clerks and prosecutors voiced concerns about her enforcement of technical legal details.
In 2001 a colleague of Judge Sotomayor, Ralph Winter, included a strange footnote in a case suggesting that an earlier ruling by Sotomayor had “inadvertently misstated the law in a way that misled litigants”.
Sotomayor’s most controversial ruling came as a result of Ricci v. DeStefano, the case involving affirmative action in the New Haven fire department. This case is now up for review by the Supreme Court.