Sonia Sotomayor

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Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Sotomayor official.jpg
Current Court Information:
Supreme Court of the United States
Title:   Associate Justice
Service:
Appointed by:   Barack Obama
Approval vote:   68-31
Active:   8/6/2009-present
Preceded by:   David Souter
Past post:   Second Circuit
Past term:   1998-2009
Past position:   Seat #13
Past post 2:   Southern District of New York
Past term 2:   1992-1998
Past position 2:   Seat #3
Personal History
Born:   June 25, 1954
Home State:   New York (Bronx), NY
Bachelors:   Princeton U., B.A., 1976
Law School:   Yale Law, J.D., 1979

Contents

Judge Sonia Sotomayor

(Sotomayor en Español)

Potential Obama nominees
Second Circuit Court of Appeals
Notable cases of Sonia Sotomayor
Coverage of confirmation hearing
Sonia Sotomayor (born June 25, 1954) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was the first nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States by President Barack Obama.

On Tuesday, May 26, 2009, President Obama nominated Sotomayor to the Supreme Court of the United States to fill the seat of the retiring David Souter. Judge Sotomayor was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 6, 2009 on a super majority 68-31 vote[1]. [2],[3],[4],[5] [6],[7],[8][9] [10] [11].

Sotomayor is only the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court (after O'Connor and Ginsburg) and one of four current female Justices. Sotomayor has the distinction of serving as the first Hispanic Justice, which is believed to have been a consideration in her nomination.[12] [13][14] The Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of her confirmation on July 28, 2009 in a 13-6 vote with one Republican, Senator Lindsey Graham, voting in favor. [15][16][17][18][19]

There is general agreement that Sotomayor will be a "reliably liberal" vote on the nation's highest court. At the same time, she is not considered to be a "favorite of the left".[20] Sotomayor has been described as both outspoken and "quite brash" on the bench -- characteristics that could help her carve out a place in the high octane environment of the nation's highest court.[12][21]

Sotomayor's confirmation hearings were considered to be something of a formality absent a "meltdown" as Democrats had enough votes to circumvent any Republican attempts to block her confirmation. [22][23][24] [21].

Early life and education

Sonia Sotomayor was born on June 25, 1954 in the Bronx borough of New York City, New York to Juan Sotomayor and the former Celina Baez. Both of her parents were born in Puerto Rico - where she visits relatives once or twice a year on average [25] - and a young Sotomayor grew up in a bilingual household and did not learn to speak English fluently until after the death of her father, who only spoke Spanish, when she was 9-years-old. Sotomayor's mother, a retired nurse, raised Sonia and her brother Juan - a physician who lives in Syracuse, NY [26]- as a single working mother. [27][28][21]

Sotomayor was attracted to the law at an early age. She says she was inspired to become a prosecutor by an episode of the legal drama "Perry Mason" in which a character playing a prosecutor claimed that serving justice meant losing cases where the defendant was innocent. "I noticed that Perry Mason was involved in a lot of the same kinds of investigative work that I had been fascinated with reading Nancy Drew, so I decided to become a lawyer." [29] [30]

Sotomayor graduated valedictorian from Cardinal Spellman High School, a private Catholic school in New York City, in 1972. [31] Raised Catholic, Sotomayor is the sixth sitting Catholic Supreme Court Justice on the nine-member Court alongside Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. [32][33][34][35]

Princeton University and Yale Law School

Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a bachelor's degree in history in 1976. While at Princeton, she received the M. Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, which is awarded to the senior who has most clearly manifested excellent scholarship, strength of character and effective leadership and considered the highest general distinction the university confers on undergraduate students. It is generally believed that she was awarded the Pyne Prize as a result of her work as the moderate leader of an on-campus Puerto Rican activist group known as Accion Puertorriquena at a time of polarized racial tensions at the Ivy League school. [36] [37] Sotomayor wrote her senior thesis on "The Impact of the Life of Luis Munoz Marin on the Political and Economic History of Puerto Rico, 1930-1975." [38][39][34][21][40]

Upon graduating Princeton University, Sotomayor would attend Yale Law School, where she was awarded her Juris Doctor degree in 1979. [41]. Classmates from her Yale days refer to Sotomayor the law student as "an intellectually curious person, although sometimes quitely so. Not one to stand out for the sake of standing out, but nevertheless, an involved student." She co-chaired the Latin American and Native American Students Association and was published in the Yale Law Journal (where she served as an editor) with the note "Statehood and the Equal Footing Doctrine: The Case for Puerto Rican Seabed Rights" which, as the title suggests, analyzed issues regarding Puerto Rico's ability to maintain rights to its seabed if it pursued statehood. [42] [43][44] [30][34][21]

Professional career

Assistant District Attorney

Sotomayor would join the office of legendary Manhattan district attorney Robert M. Morgenthau in 1979. She served as an assistant district attorney from 1979 until entering private practice in 1984 prosecuting everything from misdemeanors to high-profile murders. Sotomayor's time as a prosecutor coincided with one of the most crime-laden periods of New York City's history. An overburdened district attorney's office meant assistants would often take on dozens of cases in their first year. Sotomayor's colleagues at the time recall her starting her career as a typically frightened rookie prosecutor who quickly distinguished herself as a zealous and capable prosecutor. [45] Sotomayor would rise through the ranks of assistant district attorneys and would lead prosecutions involving robberies, assaults, murders, police brutality and child pornography. [30][34]

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee during Sotomayor's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, New York County District Attorney Morgenthau recounted Assistant District Attorney Sotomayor's time in his office.

In the district attorney's office, the Judge was immediately recognized by trial (inaudible) supervisors as someone a step ahead of her colleagues, one of the brightest and most mature, hard-working, standout who was marked for rapid advancement. Ultimately, she took on every kind of criminal case that comes into an urban courthouse, from turnstile-jumping to homicide.

One of those cases, the Tarzan murder case, involved an addicted burglar named Richard Maddicks, who would terrorize the neighborhood during a crime spree that left three dead and involved his swinging into apartment windows from rooftops, shooting anyone in his way. He is now serving 137 years to life sentence.

Another case prosecuted by Assistant D.A. Sotomayor in 1983 involved a Times Square child pornography operation. That was the first child prosecution in New York after a landmark 1982 Supreme Court decision, People v. Ferber, upholding New York's new child pornography laws. Assistant D.A. Sotomayor left the jurors in tears over what the defendants had done to child victims.

These cases happened to grab the public's attention. But Judge Sotomayor -- Assistant D.A. Sotomayor understood that every case is important to the victim and appropriately gave undivided attention to the proper disposition of all of them.

Assistant District Attorney Sotomayor soon developed a reputation. Unlike many prosecutors, she simply would not be pushed around by judges or by attorneys. Some judges were eager to dispose of cases cheaply to clear their calendars. ADA Sotomayor instead fought for the right conclusion in each case. Maybe that experience from the criminal court in New York City helped her prepare for these hearings. [46]

In her Supreme Court nomination questionnaire for the Senate Judiciary Committee[47], Sotomayor counted three cases she prosecuted as an assistant district attorney among the "10 most significant litigated matters" of her career as an attorney. The first two were the aforementioned convictions of the Harlem Tarzan Murderer and the first successful child pornography prosecution in New York. The third was the successful prosecution of one of three defendants in a case involving a shooting in an apartment complex in which she was forced to present witnesses who had "significant credibility issues." [45][48][49][50]

Private practice

In 1984, Sotomayor left Morgenthau's office to enter private practice. She would spend the next eight years (1984 - 1992) as a civil attorney with the New York City law firm of Pavia & Harcourt. Established in 1940 to represent Italian corporate interests in America, Pavia & Harcourt now represents clients in the areas of commercial and corporate law, banking, media and entertainment, real estate, litigation and arbitration, intellectual property, estate planning and administration, and immigration services. The majority of the firm's clients are European-based manufacturers entering the U.S. market. [51] As one of 30 lawyers with the firm, Pavia & Harcourt provided Sotomayor with the opportunity to round out her experiences as an attorney while continuing to appear before judges and juries. [52]

A far cry from her days prosecuting murder suspects, Sotomayor specialized in intellectual property and copyright litigation and represented high profile Italian companies like luxury handbag retailer Fendi and carmakers Fiat and Ferrari. She spent a great deal of time focused on combating the Fendi knockoff market in New York City and was known to accompany the police on raids against suspected counterfeiters. Sotomayor would make partner at Pavia & Harcourt in 1988. [53][30][34]

During her time in private practice, Sotomayor would also run a solo practice, Sotomayor & Associates, out of her Brooklyn apartment from 1983 to 1986. (This did, in fact, overlap her time as an assistant district attorney by approximately one year.) Little is know about Sotomayor & Associates other than what the judge herself answered in her Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire. [47] According to Sotomayor, the practice was an outlet to help "family and friends in their real estate, business and estate planning decisions." Some questions have been raised about Sotomayor's solo practice - for instance, why she added the "& Associates" when she was practicing solo, why she never registered the business, whether or not she was compensated for her services while also drawing a check from New York County and the exact timeframe of the practice, but there is no evidence that she did anything illegal or technically unethical. [54]

Sotomayor's private practice years would mark her last as an attorney as she joined the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as a federal district judge in 1992.[55]

Judicial career

Southern District of New York

Sonia Sotomayor served as a judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1992 until rising to the bench of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1998.

Nomination and Confirmation

On the recommendation of U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Sotomayor was nominated to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by President George H.W. Bush on November 27, 1991, to a seat vacated by John Walker. While this appointment was technically bipartisan in nature, it has been suggested that her nomination was the result of political horse-trading by Senators Moynihan (a Democrat) and Senator Alfonse D'Amato in which D'Amato agreed to endorse Moynihan's pick to President Bush. It is unclear whether the Bush Administration considered Sotomayor to be a moderate or even conservative judge although anonymous administration sources have said Sotomatyor was not their choice, but that of Moynihan.[56][57]

Her appointment was held up for nearly a year under the 'anonymous hold' loophole in the Senate confirmation process despite approval by the Senate Judiciary Committee and a "Qualified" rating by the American Bar Association. [58][59] Sotomayor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 11, 1992 with the unanimous consent of the Senate, receiving her commission on August 12, 1992.[60] When she joined the court, she was its youngest judge.[61][62]

CLICK HERE for Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation materials from 1992.

Second Circuit

Sonia Sotomayor served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1998 until her confirmation as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 2009.

Nomination and Confirmation

On the recommendation of U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Sotomayor was nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by President Bill Clinton on June 25, 1997 to a seat vacated by Daniel Mahoney. Again, Sotomayor fell victim to politics when her appointment was held up for nearly six months after a March 1998 approval by the Senate Judiciary Committee as Republicans were concerned she would be President Bill Clinton's choice as a Supreme Court Justice. [63][64] Sotomayor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 2, 1998 on a super majority 67-29-2 vote, receiving her commission on October 7, 1998.[65]

A "substantial majority" of judicial evaluators ranked Sotomayor in 1997 as "well qualified" for a position on the federal appellate bench, while a minority of evaluators found her "qualified." By way of comparison, of the roughly 30 judges who were appointed that same year to federal appellate judgeships, ten received a unanimous "well qualified" ranking, while the remaining judges were evaluated as either mixed (like Sotomayor, with a combination of "well qualified" and "qualified" assessments) or just as "qualified".[66]

In filling out her Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire, Sotomayor wrote that "judges must be extraordinarily sensitive to the impact of their decisions and function within, and respectful of, the Constitution." [34]

CLICK HERE for Judge Sotomayor's confirmation materials from 1998.

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

On Tuesday, May 26, 2009, President Obama nominated Sotomayor to the Supreme Court of the United States to fill the seat of the retiring David Souter. Sotomayor was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 6, 2009 on a super majority 68-31 vote[1]. [67],[3],[68],[5] [69],[70],[71][9] [10] [11].

Nomination and Confirmation

Sotomayor's name had initially emerged as a potential Supreme Court nominee in early February 2009 when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's diagnosis of early stage colon cancer was announced.[5]. When David Souter announced his retirement, Sotomayor's name went from "a contender" to one of the names considered to clearly be on Obama's short list for a nomination.[72] [21]

Her joining the Court is not expected to shift the ideological balance of power on the Court as she is considered a liberal jurist who is expected to fill the seat of another reliably liberal vote in David Souter, despite his appointment by Republican President George H.W. Bush. Yet, not much is known about her opinion on "hot-button" issues such as abortion, the death penalty, gay rights and executive power as the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit tends to hear high-profile cases related to business and securities law on a more regular basis. [21]

Those looking for a sense of how Sotomayor might view her role as a Supreme Court Justice could look to her choice of Justice Benjamin Cardozo as a judicial hero. Sotomayor praised Cardozo for his "great respect for precedent and his great respect ... and deference to the Legislative Branch." What she left out, however, was Cardozo's own philosophy of judicial activism. In his most famous book The Nature of the Judicial Process, he included a chapter called "The Judge as Legislator" in which he wrote that a judge must sometime "pronounce judgement ... according to the rules which he would establish if he were to assume the part of a legislator." [73]

Her most high-profile and controversial ruling prior to her Supreme Court appointment was the affirmative action case Ricci v. DeStefano in which the Robert's Court overturned her decision to side with the City of New Haven, Connecticut when it withheld promotions for firefighters when no black firefighters scored high enough on the promotion exam to be considered. This ruling has led some conservative Republicans in the United States Senate to label Sotomayor as a judicial activist.[21][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83]

Despite hearing more than 3,000 cases and having written nearly 400 opinions as an appellate judge, it is Sotomayor's actions outside of the courtroom that appeared to present the biggest challenge to her nomination. Two statements in particular have raised suspicions about her judicial philosophy amongst conservatives looking to label her as a judicial activist.

In a 2001 speech at the University of California at Berkeley, Sotomayor acknowledged that a judge's gender and ethnic background "may and will make a difference in our judging." During her remarks, she said "Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and a wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am also not sure that I agree with the statement ... I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." Sotomayor's remarks came during a U.C. Berkeley School of Law symposium titled Raising the Bar: Latino and Latina Presence in the Judiciary and Struggles for Representation. [21][84][85][86] [87] [88] [82][89]

In a political slip-of-the-tongue during a 2005 visit to Duke University, Sotomayor said that "a court of appeals is where policy is made." She was quick to qualify the remark when she said, "I know this is on tape, and I should never say that because we don't 'make law. OK. I know. I'm not promoting it. I'm not advocating it."[21][84] Sotomayor made it abundantly clear during her confirmation hearings that she did not want to be viewed as a judicial activist. In her opening statement, she declared her judicial philosophy to be "fidelity to the law." "The task of a judge is not to make law. It is to apply the law." [73]

Interestingly, liberal groups had expressed concerns of their own over Sotomayor's lack of strong rulings in support of liberal causes. Specifically, they have expressed concern over her one ruling on abortion in Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush in which she ruled in favor of the Bush administration's right to deny federal aid to foreign organizations that support or provide abortions. [90] [91] [21]

Another case that might have given some more liberal Senator's pause is U.S. v. Falso, a child pornography case in which Sotomayor sided with police despite defense claims that Falso's Fourth Amendment rights were violated because the police did not have probable cause to search his home. Sotomayor applied a "good faith exception" noting that police had obtained a warrant based on prior bad acts and regular e-mails received from a child pornography website. [92] [93]

In a 2003 lecture before a criminal law class at the University of Indiana School of Law, Sotomayor inadvertently defended the Bush Administration's right to hold enemy combatants to a different set of legal standards than American citizens. "So we have suspected enemy combatants detained in secret and given different process than criminals. One can certainly justify that type of detention under precedents and current law." Sotomayor would go on to raise questions as to the limits of encroachment on the civil liberties of Americans in her speech, but she continued to limit her opinions to law and precedent. [94][95]

As the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice, Sotomayor made history with her confirmation on August 6, 2009. She is only the third woman to serve on the nation's highest court. The historic nature of her nomination gave some Republicans like South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham a pause during her confirmation hearings in attacking her nomination and Senator Graham would be one of 8 Republicans to support her nomination. The hold-back happened as support for the party is waning in the Hispanic community as a result of tough stands on immigration in the more conservative wing of the party.[21] [9] [10] [11]

CLICK HERE for Judge Sotomayor's confirmation materials from 2009.

Notable cases

Southern District of New York
As a federal district judge, Sotomayor did not hear many controversial cases and kept a regularly low profile with regard to Constitutional issues, but she did gain notoriety after several high profile rulings regarding the Major League Baseball strike of 1994, the Wall Street Journal's publishing of the controversial "suicide note" left by former Clinton White House counsel Vince Foster and copyright issues related to a trivia book about the television show Seinfeld. As a federal district judge, Sotomayor had one of her decisions overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Silverman v. Major League Baseball Player Relations Committee, Inc.

  United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
     *[ Silverman v. Major League Baseball Player Relations Committee, Inc] 67 F3d 1054 (1995)
In some camps, Sotomayor is considered the judge who "saved" Major League Baseball. Her decision to grant a temporary injunction against the Major League Baseball owners on March 31, 1995 ended the 232-day -long baseball strike of 1994. The injunction prevented the owners from installing replacement players and temporarily reinstated a five-year-old collective bargaining agreement allowing the 1995 season to take place and allowing players and owners to come to a new agreement nearly a year later. Her decision would later be upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.[96][97][98][99][100][101]


Dow Jones v. U.S. Department of Justice

  United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
     *[ Dow Jones v. U.S. Department of Justice] 880F. Supp. 145 (1995)
In 1995, Sotomayor ruled in favor of the Wall Street Journal allowing them to print a photocopy of the final note written by Clinton White House deputy counsel Vince Foster who died in 1993. While the death of Vince Foster was ruled a suicide, it remains a mystery to many and a source of many conspiracy theories. As a result, Sotomayor ruled that the "substantial" public interest in the Foster story outweighed any violation of his family's privacy. [102][103][104]


Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. v. Carol Publishing Group

  United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
     *[ Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. v. Carol Publishing Group] 150 F.3d 132 (1998)
Sotomayor ruled (and was upheld on appeal by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, that SAT: The Seinfeld Aptitude Test infringed on the copyright of the television show Seinfeld. The case is often used in law schools as a modern application of the fair use doctrine. [105] [106]


Tasini v. New York Times, et al

  United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
     *[ Tasini v. New York Times, et al] 972 F. Supp 804 (1997)
Sotomayor ruled in favor of the New York Times when it was sued by freelance journalists claiming the NYT did not have the right to include their work in the electronic archival database LexisNexis. Sotomayor's decision was reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and that reversal was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in a 7-2 vote (Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer dissenting). [100][107][108]


Second Circuit
During more than a decade as a circuit court judge, Sotomayor has heard appeals on more than 3,000 cases and has written in excess of 380 opinions for the majority. She has had six of those decisions reviewed by the United States Supreme Court with 4 of them overturned and two upheld. Studies find her judgeship to have been moderate with respect to political leanings. A study of her 226 majority opinions since 2001 finds that 38% of her opinions could be clearly defined as liberal in nature with 49% of them falling clearly on the conservative end of the spectrum. She tends to be more conservative in criminal cases and tends to be more liberal in her dissenting opinions according to studies. [109] [110]

Judge Sotomayor is generally considered to be a competent jurist with a good legal sense who writes good opinions, but is criticized by some of the lawyers who argue before her as a "bully", "nasty" and a "terror."[34]

Sotomayor's judgeship on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit will forever be looked at through the lens of those considering her for the Supreme Court. In that respect, conservatives tend to point to several cases - all of which were subsequently overturned but the Supreme Court - which they believe identify a liberal judiciary philosophy and a tendency to legislate from the bench, earning her the partisan label "judicial activist."

Furthermore, in what has become a litmus test for United States Supreme Court nominees, Sotomayor does not have a deep record on the abortion issue. In her only notable ruling on the issue, she sided with the Bush Administration on its policy prohibiting foreign organizations that receive foreign aid from the United States from performing or supporting abortions.

Malesko v. Correctional Services Corporation

  United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
     *[ Malesko v. Correctional Services Corporation] 229 F3d 374 (2000)
In this case, Sotomayor found that an inmate living in a halfway house could sue a government contractor for forcing him to climb five flights of stairs despite a heart condition after the inmate suffered a heart attack, fell down the stairs and injured himself. Sotomayor held "extending Bivens liability to reach private corporations furthers [its] overriding purpose: providing redress for violations of constitutional rights." (Bivens was a 1971 Supreme Court case that allowed some people whose rights have been violated by federal agents to sue.) The Supreme Court overturned Sotomayor's decision in a 5 to 4 ruling stating that only individual agents, not corporations, could be sued for such violations. [111][80][74]


Riverkeeper Inc. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency

  United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
     *[ Riverkeeper Inc. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency] 475 F3d 83 (2007)
Sotomayor found in favor of environmental group Riverkeeper who challenged an EPA ruling on the Clean Water Act's "best technology" rule involving power plants need to intake water as weighed against the risk to aquatic life in surrounding waters. In her ruling, she held "Congress has already specified the relationship between cost and benefits in requiring that the technology designated by EPA be the best available." Sotomayor's decision was overturned by the United States Supreme Court in a 6-3 vote where the Court held that EPA could not weigh the costs of changes to power plants versus the value of organisms in dollar terms, but could consider only what costs "may reasonably be borne" by power plants when determining the best technology rule available. [112] [80][74]


Ricci v. DeStefano

  United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
     *[ Ricci v. DeStefano] 530 F.3d 87 (2008)
In what is considered to be the judge's most high-profile case, Sotomayor joined a finding in favor of the city of New Haven rejecting a lawsuit filed by 17 white firefighters and one Hispanic firefighter claiming race discrimination when the city of New Haven denied promotions following a promotion examination that yielded no black candidates eligible for advancement. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned the decision stating the decision to cancel the promotions violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as well as Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act which guarantees equal employment opportunity. The Court found that Sotomayor's ruling would allow the city to "experiment" with tests until they found one that produced "a more desirable racial distribution."[113][74][114][115][116][117][118][80][119][21] [73][82] [120]


Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush

  United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
     *[ Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush] 304 F3d 183 (2002)
In a case involving the conservative Mexico City Policy - announced by Ronald Reagan in 1984 and subsequently rescinded by President Bill Clinton and reauthorized by President George W. Bush, Sotomayor found that the federal government is within its rights to deny federal aid to foreign organizations that support or perform abortions. She dismissed claims by the pro-choice Center for Reproductive Law and Policy that the Mexico City Policy violated the First Amendment right to association as well as Fifth Amendment rights to due process and equal protection. In her finding, Sotomayor cited the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 which authorizes the President "to furnish assistance, on such terms and conditions as he may determine, for voluntary population planning" as well as multiple Supreme Court precedents. In her decision, Sotomayor wrote, "the Supreme Court has made clear that the government is free to favor the anti-abortion position over the pro-choice position, and can do so with public funds." [121] [122][21]


See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "WisPolitics" Sonia Sotomayor confirmed, August 6, 2009
  2. ↑ SCOTUS blog, "The President will nominate Sotomayor"
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Slate, "Choose Your Own Supreme Court Justice", May 6, 2009
  4. ↑ Sacramento Bee, "AP sources: Obama picks Sotomayor for high court", May 26, 2009
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Esquire" Sotomayor, Possible Replacement for Ginsburg, February 6, 2009
  6. ↑ New York Times "Souter Said to Be Leaving Court in June" April 30, 2009
  7. ↑ Obama's Choices: Gird Your Loins
  8. ↑ National Public Radio, "Supreme Court Justice Souter To Retire", April 30, 2009
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Washington Post, "Sotomyaor Wins Confirmation", August 7, 2009
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 CNN, "Senate confirms Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court", August 6, 2009
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Chicago Tribune, "Sonia Sotomayor confirmed 68-31 Senate", August 7, 2009
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Washington Post, "N.Y. Federal Judge Likely on Shortlist", May 7, 2009
  13. ↑ "Yes- If Confirmed, Judge Sonia Sotomayor WILL BE the First Hispanic Supreme Court Justice", May 27, 2009
  14. ↑ Fox News, "Rove's Report Card: Supreme Court Nominee Sotomayor", May 27, 2009
  15. ↑ CBS News: Political Hotsheet "Senate Republicans Delay Sotomayor Vote" July 21, 2009
  16. ↑ New York Times "Senate Panel Endorses Sotomayor in 13-6 Vote", July 28, 2009
  17. ↑ Washington Post, "Senate Panel Votes 13-6 in Favor of Sotomayor", July 28, 2009
  18. ↑ Christian Science Monitor, "Sotomayor gets committee nod for Supreme Court seat", July 28, 2009
  19. ↑ Wall Street Journal, "Judiciary Confirms Sotomayor; Final Vote Set for Next Week", July 28, 2009
  20. ↑ New York Times, "Favorites of Left Don’t Make Obama’s Court List", May 25, 2009
  21. ↑ 21.00 21.01 21.02 21.03 21.04 21.05 21.06 21.07 21.08 21.09 21.10 21.11 21.12 21.13 Time Magazine, "Sonia Sotomayor: A Justice Like No Other", May 28, 2009
  22. ↑ BBC News, "Senate ends Sotomayor questioning", July 16, 2009
  23. ↑ MSNBC, "Sotomayor vows impartiality if confirmed", July 13, 2009
  24. ↑ Fox News, "'Meltdown'-Proof? Sotomayor's Confirmation Assured?", July 14, 2009
  25. ↑ Associated Press, "Sotomayor Maintains Puerto Rican Roots", May 26, 2009
  26. ↑ The Post Standard (Syracuse), "Supreme Court nominee's brother hails from Syracuse suburb of Clay", May 26, 2009
  27. ↑ The New Republic, "The Case Against Sotomayor", May 4, 2009
  28. ↑ New York Times, "In Puerto Rico, Supreme Court Pick With Island Roots Becomes a Superstar", May 29, 2009
  29. ↑ New York Times, "A Breakthrough Judge: What She Always Wanted", September 25, 1992
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 American Bar Association, Division for Public Education: National Hispanic Heritage Month -- Sonia Sotomayor
  31. ↑ "Spellman Grad U.S. Supreme Court Nominee"
  32. ↑ Boston.com, "Sotomayor would be sixth Catholic Justice", May 26, 2009
  33. ↑ "Religion of the Supreme Court"
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 34.4 34.5 34.6 New York Times, "Woman in the News - Sotomayor, a Trailblazer and a Dreamer", May 27, 2009
  35. ↑ Washington Post, "Supreme Change", June 16, 2009
  36. ↑ Politico, "Princeton University holds the key to understanding Sonia Sotomayor", May 29, 2009
  37. ↑ The Daily Princetonian, "Latin student groups assail university hiring performance", April 22, 1974
  38. ↑ "Princeton alumna, trustee nominated to Supreme Court", May 26, 2009
  39. ↑ Preface to Sonia Sotomayor's Princeton University Senior Thesis: "The Impact of the Life of Luis Munoz Marin on the Political and Economic History of Puerto Rico, 1930-1975."
  40. ↑ Time Magazine, "Where Sonia Sotomayor Really Stands on Race", June 11, 2009
  41. ↑ Judge Sonia Sotomayor FJC Bio
  42. ↑ Yale Daily News, "At Yale, Sotomayor was sharp but not outspoken", May 31, 2009
  43. ↑ Yale Law Journal, Sonia Sotomayor's Note", May 27, 2009
  44. ↑ Sonia Sotomayor's Yale Law Journal Note "Statehood and the Equal Footing Doctrine: The Case for Puerto Rican Seabed Rights", April 1979
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 New York Times, "Sotomayor Is Recalled as a Driven Rookie Prosecutor", June 7, 2009
  46. ↑ Washington Post, District Attorney of New York County Robert Morgenthau Testifies at Judge Sotomayor's Confirmation Hearings", July 16, 2009
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court - Sonia Sotomayor - Questionnaire
  48. ↑ National Public Radio, "Sotomayor's Real-World Schooling in Law and Order", June 9, 2009
  49. ↑ CNN, "Sotomayor learner the ropes on the 'Tarzan' case", July 16, 2009
  50. ↑ The People of the State of New York against Richard Maddicks
  51. ↑ | Pavia & Harcourt LLP
  52. ↑ ABA Journal "The Lawyers Who May Run America", November 2008
  53. ↑ National Law Journal, "Nominee's civil practice was with a small, but specialized, firm", May 27, 2009
  54. ↑ New York Times, Little Information Given About Solo Law Practice Run by Sotomayor in the '80s", July 7, 2009
  55. ↑ Sotomayor biography at the Federal Judicial Center
  56. ↑ Washington Post, "Sotomayor's District Court Bid by D'Amato and Moynihan", May 27, 2009
  57. ↑ Washington Examiner, "Why did George H.W. Bush pick Sotomayor for the courts?", May 26, 2009
  58. ↑ Sotomayor Profile from Aspen Publishers
  59. ↑ New York Times, "4 Women Delayed in Rise to the Bench", July 14, 1992
  60. ↑ "THOMAS" Nomination of Sonija Sotomayor, March 25, 2009
  61. ↑ Dissenting Justice, "Hatchet Job: Jeffrey Rosen's Utterly Bankrupt Analysis of Judge Sonia Sotomayor", May 4, 2009
  62. ↑ New York Times, "Update; A Small Whittling Down Of Federal Bench Vacancies", August 16, 1992
  63. ↑ New York Times, "G.O.P., It's Eyes on High Court, Blocks a Judge", June 13, 1998
  64. ↑ New York Times, "After Delay, Senate Approves Judge for Court in New York",October 3, 1998
  65. ↑ "THOMAS" Nomination of Sonija Sotomayor, March 25, 2009
  66. ↑ Ratings of Article III judicial nominees, 105th Congress
  67. ↑ SCOTUS blog, "The President will nominate Sotomayor"
  68. ↑ Sacramento Bee, "AP sources: Obama picks Sotomayor for high court", May 26, 2009
  69. ↑ New York Times "Souter Said to Be Leaving Court in June" April 30, 2009
  70. ↑ Obama's Choices: Gird Your Loins
  71. ↑ National Public Radio, "Supreme Court Justice Souter To Retire", April 30, 2009
  72. ↑ The Caucus "Blogtalk: Supreme Selection and Obama’s Surprise" May 1, 2009
  73. ↑ 73.0 73.1 73.2 Time Magazine, "Sotomayor Hearing: Why Shouldn't Judges Make Policy>", July 16, 2009
  74. ↑ 74.0 74.1 74.2 74.3 New York Times, "Selected Cases of Judge Sonia Sotomayor"
  75. ↑ New York Times, "Because of Race: Ricci v. DeStefano - Stanley Fish Blog", July 13, 2009
  76. ↑ Argument Recap: Ricci v. DeStefano on SCOTUSblog
  77. ↑ Legal Information Institute Bulletin, Ricci v. DeStefano
  78. ↑ Ricci v. DeStefano from Cornell Law School's Supreme Court Collection
  79. ↑ United States Supreme Court decision on Ricci v. DeStefano on www.supremecourt.gov
  80. ↑ 80.0 80.1 80.2 80.3 New York Times, "Sotomayor's Notable Court Opinions and Articles", July 10, 2009
  81. ↑ Christian Science Monitor, "U.S. Supreme Court takes up 'reverse discrimination' case", January 9, 2009
  82. ↑ 82.0 82.1 82.2 Time Magazine, "How the Republicans Will Go After Sonia Sotomayor", July 13, 2009
  83. ↑ Time Magazine, "Where Sonia Sotomayor Really Stands on Race", June 11, 2009
  84. ↑ 84.0 84.1 New York Times, Sotomayor's View of Judging Is on the Record", May 14, 2009
  85. ↑ New York Times, "Lecture - 'A Latina Judge's Voice' - Text", May 14, 2009
  86. ↑ cnn, "Sotomayor's 'wise Latina' comment a staple of her speeches", June 8, 2009
  87. ↑ UC Berkeley News, "A Latina judge's voice", 2001
  88. ↑ Time Magazine, "Just What Is a 'Wise Latina,' Anyway?", July 14, 2009
  89. ↑ Time Magazine, "Where Sonia Sotomayor Really Stands on Race", June 11, 2009
  90. ↑ Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush on OpenJurist
  91. ↑ Washington Post, "Abortion Rights Backers Get Reassurances on Nominee", May 29, 2009
  92. ↑ ChildLaw Blog, "Sotomayor on Child Porn - U.S. v. Falso", June 8, 2009
  93. ↑ Second Circuit Blog, "Good Faith Efforts", September 28. 2008
  94. ↑ New York Times, "Judge Sotomayor's 2003 Lecture at Indiana Law School"
  95. ↑ Fox News, "New Documents Shed Light on Sotomayor's Thoughts About Sept. 11 Attacks", June 16, 2009
  96. ↑ New York Times, "Sotomayor's Baseball Ruling Lingers, 14 Years Later", May 26, 2009
  97. ↑ Silverman v. Major League Baseball Player Relations Committee Inc. on OpenJurist.com
  98. ↑ "Sotomayor's District Court Decisions on Traditional Labor Matters" on The Empoyment Law Post, June 16, 2009
  99. ↑ New York Times, "Sotomayor, Baseball's Savior, May Be Possibility for High Court", May 14, 2009
  100. ↑ 100.0 100.1 CNN, "Sotomayor's resume, record on notable cases"
  101. ↑ New York Times, BASEBALL: Woman in the News; Strike-Zone Arbitrator -- Sonia Sotomayor", April 1, 1995
  102. ↑ A summary of media related decisions by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor
  103. ↑ FOIA Update: Significant New Decisions (1995)
  104. ↑ First Amendment Center, "Sotomayor on the First Amendment", May 28 2009
  105. ↑ CASTLE ROCK ENTERTAINMENT, INC. v. CAROL PUBLISHING GROUP, 150 F.3d 132 (2nd Cir. 1998) (LOISLAW)
  106. ↑ Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. v. Carol Publishing Group, Inc. and Beth B. Golub at Justia.com
  107. ↑ New York Times Company Inc. v. Jonathan Tasini at OpenJurist.com
  108. ↑ New York Times Co., Inc. v. Tasini et al. at Justia.com
  109. ↑ Time Magazine, "Where Sonia Sotomayor Really Stands on Race", June 11, 2009
  110. ↑ Law.com, "Sotomayor Is No Activist Judge, Says Author", June 8, 2009
  111. ↑ John Malesko v. Correctional Services Corporation on OpenJurist
  112. ↑ Riverkeeper Inc. v. United States Envrionmental Protection Agency on OpenJurist
  113. ↑ Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Equal Employment Opportunity on FindLaw
  114. ↑ New York Times, "Because of Race: Ricci v. DeStefano - Stanley Fish Blog", July 13, 2009
  115. ↑ Argument Recap: Ricci v. DeStefano on SCOTUSblog
  116. ↑ Legal Information Institute Bulletin, Ricci v. DeStefano
  117. ↑ Ricci v. DeStefano from Cornell Law School's Supreme Court Collection
  118. ↑ United States Supreme Court decision on Ricci v. DeStefano on www.supremecourt.gov
  119. ↑ Christian Science Monitor, "U.S. Supreme Court takes up 'reverse discrimination' case", January 9, 2009
  120. ↑ Time Magazine, "Where Sonia Sotomayor Really Stands on Race", June 11, 2009
  121. ↑ Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush on OpenJurist
  122. ↑ Washington Post, "Abortion Rights Backers Get Reassurances on Nominee", May 29, 2009

Further Reading

Federal judicial offices
Preceded by:
John Walker 		Southern District of New York
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Victor Marrero
Preceded by:
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1998–2009
Seat #13 		Succeeded by:
Raymond Lohier
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