President Obama on Tuesday May 26, 2009 nominated Federal Appellate Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. She is on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, named a U.S. District Court judge by President George H.W. Bush in 1992, and Federal Appellate Judge by President Bill Clinton. Sotomayor, who is of Puerto Rican descent, raised in a housing project in the South Bronx and attended Princeton University and Yale Law School. Sotomayor was hired out of law school as an assistant district attorney under New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau starting in 1979. Working in the trial division, she handled heavy caseloads as she prosecuted everything from shoplifting and prostitution to robberies, assaults, and murders. In 1984, she entered private practice, joining the commercial litigation practice group of Pavia & Harcourt in Manhattan as an associate. One of 30 attorneys in the law firm, she specialized in intellectual property litigation, international law, and arbitration. Sotomayor was thus nominated on November 27, 1991 and confirmed on August 11, 1992, 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 was one of seven women among the district's 58 judges. On June 25, 1997, Sotomayor was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which was vacated by J. Daniel Mahoney. Sotomayor was confirmed on October 2, 1998, by a 67–29 vote. Over her ten years on the circuit court, Sotomayor has heard appeals in more than 3,000 cases and has written about 380 opinions where she was in the majority. The day Obama nominated Sotomayor to the court, he states that "Sotomayor would bring more experience on the bench than anyone currently serving on the Supreme Court when appointed", and personally I agree with Obama because she has more dificult life expierences than the other justice, which enables her to handle the job effiently. She became the second jurist to be nominated to three different judicial positions by three different presidents. And on July 28, 2009, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Sotomayor's nomination; the 13–6 vote was almost entirely along party lines, with no Democrats opposing her and only one Republican supporting her. On August 6, 2009, Sotomayor was confirmed by the full Senate by a vote of 68 to 31. The vote was largely along party lines, with no Democrats opposing her and nine Republicans supporting her.
Sotomayor, 55, is the first Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court justice and the third woman to serve on the high court.
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