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Sonia Sotomayor
Sotomayor in 2009
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court-nominee
Assuming office pending confirmation from U.S. Senate
Nominated by	Barack Obama
Succeeding	David Souter
Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office October 7, 1998
Nominated by	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	J. Daniel Mahoney
Personal details
Born	(1954-06-25) June 25, 1954 (age 70) The Bronx, New York
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	Yale Law School (J.D.) Princeton University (A.B.)

Sonia Sotomayor (born June 25, 1954) is a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. On May 26, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Judge Sotomayor for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice David Souter.

Early life and family

Sotomayor was born in The Bronx, New York, to Puerto Rican parents. She grew up in a housing project in the South Bronx, a short walk from Yankee Stadium. She was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes at age 8. Her father, a tool-and-die worker with a third-grade education, died the following year. Her mother, Selena Sotomayor, a nurse, raised Sotomayor and her younger brother, Juan Sotomayor, who is now a doctor. Sotomayor has often stated that her mother is her life inspiration. In 1976, Sotomayor married while a student at Princeton University and divorced in 1983.

Education and early legal career

Sotomayor graduated from Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx. She earned her A.B. from Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude in 1976. Sotomayor obtained her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1979, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. Sotomayor then served as an Assistant District Attorney under prominent New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, prosecuting robberies, assaults, murders, police brutality, and child pornography cases. In 1984, she entered private practice, making partner at the commercial litigation firm of Pavia & Harcourt, where she specialized in intellectual property litigation.

Federal judicial service

Considered a political centrist by the American Bar Association Journal and others, Sotomayor was nominated on November 27, 1991, by President George H. W. Bush to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by John M. Walker, Jr. She became the youngest judge in the Southern District and the first Hispanic federal judge anywhere in New York State.

It is the longstanding practice in most states, including New York, for home-state senators of both parties to play roles in recommending individuals for federal District Court judgeships. According to a blog post by conservative activist Ed Whelan, Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York suggested Sotomayor's name to President Bush and Bush appointed centrist Sotomayor in a deal that allowed a conservative judge to be appointed as well. Sotomayor was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 11, 1992, and received her commission the next day.

On March 30, 1995, she issued the preliminary injunction against Major League Baseball, preventing MLB from unilaterally implementing a new Collective Bargaining Agreement and using replacement players, thus ending the 1994 baseball strike. In another high-profile case, she issued an order allowing the Wall Street Journal to publish Vince Foster's suicide note.

Confirmation as Court of Appeals Judge

On June 25, 1997, she was nominated by President Bill Clinton to the seat she now holds, which was vacated by J. Daniel Mahoney. Her nomination was approved overwhelmingly by the Senate Judiciary Committee, but became "embroiled in the sometimes tortured judicial politics of the Senate," as some Republicans said they did not want to consider the nomination because elevating Sotomayor to the Appeals Court would enhance her prospects of being appointed to the Supreme Court. An anonymous senator put a secret hold on her nomination, blocking it for over a year. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy called the length of the hold "disturbing," "petty," and "shameful," also noting that at that time, "f the 10 judicial nominees whose nominations have been pending the longest before the Senate, eight are women and racial or ethnic minority candidates."

In 1998, several Hispanic organizations organized a petition drive in New York State, generating hundreds of signatures from New Yorkers to try to convince New York Republican Senator Al D'Amato to push the Senate leadership to bring Sotomayor's nomination to a vote. Her nomination had been pending for over a year when Majority Leader Trent Lott scheduled the vote. Many Republicans, including then-Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch and six other Republicans who are still in the Senate today, voted for Sotomayor's confirmation to the Second Circuit. With solid Democratic support, and support from about half of Republicans, Sotomayor was confirmed on October 2, 1998, in a 67-29 vote, and she received her commission on October 7.

Sotomayor's statements on her judicial philosophy

In 2001 at the annual Judge Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture at the University of California, Berkeley, Sotomayor stated, "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." At the same event, she also stated, "Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging." In 2005, she said that a "court of appeals is where policy is made. And I know — I know this is on tape, and I should never say that because we don’t make law. I know. O.K. I know. I'm not promoting it. I'm not advocating it. I'm — you know."

Awards and honors

Sotomayor has received honorary degrees from Lehman College, Princeton University, Brooklyn Law School, Pace University School of Law, Hofstra University, and Northeastern University. She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2002.

Other activities

While in private practice, Sotomayor was appointed in 1988 as one of the founding members of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, where she served for four years. She has also been a member of the Board of Directors of the State of New York Mortgage Agency (SONYMA), the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the foundation then known as the Maternity Center Association (now called Childbirth Connection).

Sotomayor was an Adjunct Professor at New York University School of Law from 1998 to 2007 and has been a lecturer-in-law at Columbia Law School since 1999. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Princeton University and a longtime fan of the New York Yankees.

Nomination to the United States Supreme Court

Prior to her selection as President Obama's nominee, Sotomayor had been regarded as a potential Supreme Court nominee by several presidents, both Republican and Democratic. She could enjoy bipartisan support. In July 2005, a number of Senate Democrats suggested Sotomayor, among others, to President George W. Bush as a nominee acceptable to them to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The seat was eventually filled by Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. of the Third Circuit.

Since Barack Obama's election, there had been speculation that Sotomayor could be a leading candidate for the Supreme Court seat of Justice David Souter, or for any opening on the Court during Obama's term. On April 9, 2009, New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand wrote a joint letter to President Obama urging him to appoint Sotomayor, or alternatively Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, to the Supreme Court if a vacancy should arise on the Court during his term. On April 30, 2009 David Souter's retirement plans were leaked to the media, and Sonia Sotomayor received early attention as a possible nominee for the seat to be vacated in June 2009. On May 13, 2009, the Associated Press reported that President Obama was considering Sotomayor, among others, for possible appointment to the United States Supreme Court. On May 26, 2009, Obama nominated Sotomayor to the court. If confirmed, this would make her the Supreme Court's first Latina justice.

Previous rulings

Intellectual property

In New York Times Co. v. Tasini, freelance journalists sued the New York Times Company for copyright infringement for the Times inclusion in an electronic archival database (LexisNexis) the work of freelancers it had published. Sotomayor (who was then a District Judge) ruled that the publisher had the right to license the freelancer's work. This decision was reversed on appeal, and the Supreme Court upheld the reversal; two dissenters (John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer) took Sotomayor's position.

In Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. v. Carol Publishing Group, Sotomayor ruled that a book of trivia from the television program Seinfeld infringed on the copyright of the show's producer and did not constitute legal fair use. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld Sotomayor's ruling.

Abortion

In Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush, Sotomayor upheld the Bush administration's implementation of the "Mexico City Policy" which requires foreign organizations receiving U.S. funds to "neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations". Sotomayor held that the policy did not constitute a violation of equal protection, as the government "is free to favor the anti-abortion position over the pro-choice position, and can do so with public funds".

First Amendment rights

In Pappas v. Giuliani, Sotomayor dissented from her colleagues’ ruling that the NYPD could terminate an employee from his desk job who sent racist materials through the mail. Sotomayor argued that the First Amendment protected speech by the employee “away from the office, on own time,” even if that speech was “offensive, hateful, and insulting," and that therefore the employee's First Amendment claim should have gone to trial rather than being dismissed on summary judgment.

Fourth Amendment rights

In N.G. ex rel. S.G. v. Connecticut, Sotomayor dissented from her colleagues’ decision to uphold a series of strip searches of “troubled adolescent girls” in juvenile detention centers. While Sotomayor agreed that some of the strip searches at issue in the case were lawful, she would have held that due to the “the severely intrusive nature of strip searches,” they should not be allowed “in the absence of individualized suspicion, of adolescents who have never been charged with a crime.” She argued that an "individualized suspicion" rule was more consistent with Second Circuit precedent than the majority's rule.

In Leventhal v. Knapek, Sotomayor rejected a Fourth Amendment challenge by a public employee whose employer searched his office computer. She held that “ven though had some expectation of privacy in the contents of his office computer, the investigatory searches by the DOT did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights” because here “there were reasonable grounds for suspecting” the search would reveal evidence of “work-related misconduct.”

Employment Discrimination

Sotomayor was a member of the Second Circuit panel in a high-profile case that held that the City of New Haven could throw out its promotional test for firefighters and start over with a new test, because the City believed the test had a "disparate impact" on minority firefighters and it might therefore be subject to a lawsuit from minority firefighters if it certified the test results. (No black firefighters qualified for promotion under the test, whereas some had qualified under tests used in previous years.) Instead, white firefighters sued the City, claiming that their rights were violated because the test was thrown out. The case was recently heard by the U.S. Supreme Court as Ricci v. DeStefano, and a ruling has not yet been issued.

See also

• List of famous Puerto Ricans
• Barack Obama Supreme Court candidates

References

1. Jeff Zeleny (May 26, 2009). "Obama Chooses Sotomayor for Supreme Court Nominee". New York Times. Retrieved May 26,2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
2. "Sonia Sotomayor: Supreme Court Nominee". 2009-05-26. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
3. ^ "Sonia Sotomayor (ABA Profile, National Hispanic Heritage Month 2000)".
4. ^ Abrams, Roger I. (2001). Legal Bases. Temple University Press. p. 173.
5. ^ McKinley, James C. (1995-04-01). "Woman in the News; Strike-Zone Arbitrator — Sonia Sotomayor". New York Times. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
6. ^ Hoffman, Jan (1992-09-25). "A Breakthrough Judge: What She Always Wanted". New York Times. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
7. Supreme Court Nomination Acceptance Speech; May 26, 2009.
8. Supreme Court Nomination Acceptance Speech; May 26, 2009.
9. Shapiro, Michael (2009-05-05). "Sonia Sotomayor '76 is very smart". The Daily Princetonian. Retrieved 2009-05-06. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
10. ^ Carter, Terry (November 2008). "The Lawyers Who May Run America". ABA Journal. Retrieved 2009-01-17. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
11. ^ Adams, Edward A. (2009-04-30). "Who Will Replace Justice Souter?". ABA Journal. Retrieved 2009-05-01. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
12. ^ Shepard, Scott (2008-11-24). "Speculation Already Under Way on Possible Obama Supreme Court Nominations". Cox News Service. Retrieved 2009-01-17. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
13. ^ Biskupic, Joan (2005-07-19). "The next president could tip high court". USA Today.
14. ^ McKinley, James (1995-04-02). "Tough on the Bench: Judge who issued injunction against owners gets high marks by peers". Dallas Morning News.
15. ^ "Times Topics: Sonia Sotomayor". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
16. King, Wayne (1991-03-02). "Hispanic Nominee for U.S. Bench". New York Times. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
17. Rutkus, Dennis (2008-03-06), "CRS Report for Congress: Role of Home State Senators in the Selection of Lower Federal Court Judges" (PDF), USA Today, p. 14
18. Whelan, Ed. "Shorter Bench". "National Review Online blog".
19. ^ Smith, Greg B. (1998-10-24). "Judge's Journey to Top: Bronx' Sotomayor Rose From Projects to Court of Appeals". New York Daily News. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
20. "100 Most Influential Hispanics" (PDF). Hispanic Business. 2005. p. 74. {{cite magazine}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
21. ^ Lewis, Neil A. (1998-10-03). "After Delay, Senate Approves Judge for Court in New York". New York Times. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
22. Lewis, Neil A. (1998-06-13). "G.O.P., Its Eyes On High Court, Blocks a Judge". New York Times. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
23. "Delays in Senate Action on Judicial Nominations". 1998-06-18.
24. Bell, Lauren Cohen (2002). Warring factions: interest groups, money, and the new politics of Senate confirmation. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. p. 81. ISBN 0-8142-0891-6. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
25. "U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 105th Congress - 2nd Session".
26. A Judge’s View of Judging Is on the Record, The New York Times, May 14, 2009
27. "Outstanding Latino Professional Award Recipient, 2006, Judge Sotomayor".
28. ^ http://members.amphilsoc.org/webLinksPublic.php?MemberId=4489
29. http://www.nyccfb.info/press/info/board_members.htm?sm=press_04
30. ^ http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/judgesbio.htm
31. ^ Weiner, Rachel Jr. (2009-05-01). "Sonia Sotomayor: Supreme Court Nominee? All You Need To Know". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2009-05-01. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
32. James Oliphant, Five possible nominees for Obama, Chicago Tribune (November 3, 2008).
33. Jouvenal, Justin (2009-05-03). "Ten Picks for Obama's Supreme Court". Salon.com. Retrieved 2009-05-03. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
34. "Obama court pick could be Granholm". Washington Post. 2008-10-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
35. "Sonia Sotomayor: Obama's Supreme Court Replacement for Ginsburg?". Esquire. 2009-02-06. Retrieved 2009-05-01. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
36. ^ Stein, Sam (2009-05-01). "Inside Obama's Court Deliberations: Sotomayor Most Mentioned". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2009-05-02. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
37. ^ Schumer, Charles (2009-04-09). "Schumer, Gillibrand make direct appeal to President Obama recommending he nominate the first ever Latino to the Supreme Court should a vacancy occur during his term". Press Release of Senator Charles Schumer. Retrieved 2009-05-01. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
38. "AP source: Obama has more than 6 people for court". Retrieved 2009-05-13.
39. Baker, Peter, and Jeff Zeleney. "Obama Selects Sotomayor for Court." New York Times, May 26, 2009.
40. "US Supreme Court set to have first Latina justice". The Telegraph. 2009-05-02. Retrieved 2009-05-03.
41. "Bronx judge Sonia Sotomayor would be first Latina on Supreme Court if she replaces Justice Souter (and either the first or second Hispanic, depending on whether one counts [[Benjamin Cardozo]])". The Daily News. 2009-05-01. Retrieved 2009-05-03. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
42. "Supreme Court Justice David Souter plans to retire". Politico. 2009-04-30. Retrieved 2009-05-03.
43. Sotomayor's resume, record on notable cases, CNN.com, 26 May 2009. Accessed 26 May 2009.
44. Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush, 304 F.3d 183 (2d Cir. 2002)
45. Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush.
46. Pappas v. Giuliani, 290 F.3d 143 (2d Cir. 2002)
47. N.G. ex rel. S.G. v. Connecticut, 382 F.3d. 225 (2d Cir. 2004)
48. Leventhal v. Knapek, 266 F.3d 64 (2001)
49. On a Supreme Court Prospect’s Résumé: ‘Baseball Savior’, The New York Times, May 14, 2009
50. "Sotomayor's resume, record on notable cases". CNN. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
51. Justices to Hear White Firefighters’ Bias Claims, The New York Times, April 9, 2009

External links

• Sonia Sotomayor at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Extended Biography
• American Philosophical Society short bio
• ABA Profile, National Hispanic Heritage Month 2000
• "A Breakthrough Judge: What She Always Wanted" early profile from 1992
• SCOTUSBlog: Judge Sotomayor's Appellate Opinions in Civil Cases
• Sonia Sotomayor focus page with news from leading sources at DailyMe.com

• Current events from May 2009
• 1954 births
• Living people
• American Catholics
• People from the Bronx
• Baseball labor relations
• Yale Law School alumni
• 1995 in baseball
• American women judges
• Princeton University alumni
• Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• United States district court judges appointed by George H. W. Bush
• Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• United States court of appeals judges appointed by Bill Clinton
• Puerto Rican-Americans