Obama nominates Sotomayor to Supreme Court

President Barack Obama on Tuesday nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. If confirmed by the Senate, the 54-year-old Sotomayor would replace Justice David Souter and become the first Hispanic member of the Court.

Sotomayor currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She graduated from Princeton University, summa cum laude, in 1976, where she won the Pyne Prize, the highest general award given to Princeton undergraduates. She later received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1979, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.

"Over a distinguished career that spans three decades, Judge Sonia Sotomayor has worked at almost every level of our judicial experience," President Obama said Tuesday. In a morning announcement from the East Room of the White House, the president praised her "depth of experience," which he said would be "invaluable" on the Court.

Obama also noted that Judge Sotomayor was nominated by a Republican and promoted by a Democrat, a point that could make it harder for conservatives to portray her as a rigid liberal. She he was first nominated to the federal bench by President George H.W. Bush and then elevated to the federal appeals court by President Bill Clinton.

The president cited Judge Sotomayor's lengthy legal background. "Walking in the door she would bring more experience on the bench and more varied experience on the bench than anyone currently serving on the United States Supreme Court had when they were appointed," Obama said.

In a lighthearted moment during his speech, President Obama thanked the judge for saving baseball and noted that she was a Yankees fan. Sotomayor issued a preliminary injunction against Major League Baseball in 1995 that prevented the league from using replacement players, thus ending the season's baseball strike.

Born and raised in the Bronx, Sotomayor grew up in a housing project in the borough and lost her father when she was young. Because of her life experience and perspective, she would likely satisfy President Barack Obama's description of "empathy" as a quality he seeks in a Supreme Court Justice.

Judge Sotomayor was joined in the White House Tuesday by her mother and her brother. Her parents were both working-class Puerto Ricans, and her father passed away when she was a child, leaving Sotomayor and her younger brother to be raised by their mother.

Sotomayor served as an Assistant District Attorney under New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and entered private practice in 1984, specializing in intellectual property litigation.