Obama to nominate Sotomayor as 1st Hispanic Supreme Court Justice
According to the Associated Press, New York federal judge Sonia Sotomayor will be President Barack Obama’s selection to join the Supreme Court. Sotomayor would be the 1st Hispanic Justice and 3rd female if confirmed. She would replace retiring Justice David Souter.
Sotomayor, the daughter of Puerto Rican parents, grew up in the South Bronx. Her father died when she was nine years, old, so she was mostly raised by her mother who worked as a nurse.
The presumptive nominee is very well respected by those who have worked with her and for her, but the nomination will not proceed without critics. According to The New Republic, some Democrats have “expressed questions about her temperament, her judicial craftsmanship, and most of all, her ability to provide an intellectual counterweight to the conservative justices, as well as a clear liberal alternative.”
Sotomayor was first appointed to the bench by George H. W. Bush in 1992 before being named as an appeals judge by President Bill Clinton in 1997.
Sotomayor fits the description the President laid out in what he was looking for in a nominee; someone with real world experience . It would be hard for Republicans to mount a faux filibuster for two reasons: number one they just don’t have enough votes, and number two, they could face further erosion of Hispanic voter support. Since 2006, Hispanic voters have trended more and more towards the Democratic Party.
The Supreme Court’s next session begins the first Monday in October.
