Articles on the Financials of Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the U.S

Federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor Likely to Be on Obama's Supreme Court Shortlist - washingtonpost.com

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N.Y. Federal Judge Likely on Shortlist Backers Say She Meets Obama Requisites By Keith B. Richburg Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 7, 2009

NEW YORK -- George M. Pavia remembers being instantly impressed with the young woman he hired for his law firm in 1984. Sonia Sotomayor had graduated summa cum laude at Princeton, edited the Yale Law Journal in law school and had courtroom experience in the Manhattan prosecutor's office.

Attorney THIS STORY NEW YORK, NY - BILLION DOLLAR ASSET MANAGER N.Y. Federal Judge Likely on Junior Partner Level Attorney Shortlist NEW YORK, NY - EXPANDING FIRM 44: Sotomayor Rose High, with Few Assets Sonia Sotomayor, who received an honorary Corporate Attorney degree from Pace University in 2003, is PARSIPPANY, NJ - WELL-KNOWN, LARGE EAST COAST expected to be a reliable liberal vote if FIRM appointed to the high court. (Courtesy Of Attorney / Associate / Patent /... She also spoke Spanish, which helped her understand Pace University) NEW YORK, NY - WELL ESTABLISHED INTERNATIONAL Italian, and one of the firm's main client's was Enlarge Photo LAW FIRM carmaker Fiat. Paralegal Manager TOOLBOX NEW YORK, NY - LAW FIRM "She was just ideal for us in terms of her background Resize Print E-mail and training," said Pavia, managing partner of Pavia Yahoo! Buzz Save/Share Find Your Dream Job Now! & Harcourt. + COMMENT What also impressed him, he said, was her personal Jobs by SimplyHired story. Sotomayor, who is of Puerto Rican descent, had POST A COMMENT Your washingtonpost.com User ID, FEATURED ADVERTISER LINKS grown up in a public housing project in the Bronx, corderoric, will be displayed with your near the old Yankee Stadium. Her father died when comment. Lawyer: Asbestos Lung Cancer, Hydroxycut, Pain she was a child, leaving her mother, a nurse, to instill Pumps in Sotomayor and her brother the idea that education Mesothelioma Lawyer, Construction, High Risk Jobs, Vets was their path to a better life. Save Up To 75% On Cruises at Vacations To Go "She is, in a way, a counterpart of Obama himself," Get your complete credit history from all three major credit agencies Pavia said. "It's the American dream -- anybody can Discussion Policy make it." Ads by Google WHO'S BLOGGING Philadelphia Law Students Sotomayor, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for Conquer Law School at the Law Preview UPenn session! Links to this article the 2nd Circuit, appears by most accounts to be on the » www.lawpreview.com shortlist of Supreme Court nominees to replace retiring Justice David H. Souter. If Sedona Divorce Law Prescott Vly area divorce lawyer Personal injury representation appointed, she would be the third woman on the bench in the court's history and the first www.KilleLawAZ.com Hispanic. Local Divorce Lawyer Experience local divorce lawyer Call us for a free consultation rgraylawslc.com Sotomayor presents a contradiction, say those who know her. Her detractors have said she can be short-tempered, tough on the bench and at odds with the amicability that President Obama has often sought in his appointments.

But her supporters -- former Yale ar:1 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/06/AR2009050603762.html[5/8/2009 12:21:25 PM] Federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor Likely to Be on Obama's Supreme Court Shortlist - washingtonpost.com

classmates, law firm colleagues and former clerks -- say she meets the definition of what Obama has said he is looking for: a qualified nominee with legal and real world experience, as well as an appreciation for the impact of court decisions on everyday life.

"I think her life experience gives her exactly the kind of perspective the court needs," said Robert H. Klonoff, dean of Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., and a classmate and friend of Sotomayor's from Yale Law School's class of 1979. "When I read [Obama's] description of what he thinks of as an ideal justice, she just fits it to a T." Besides her background, he said, "her credentials are unbelievable."

Among others mentioned as possible replacements for Souter are Elena Kagan, Obama's solicitor general and the former dean of Harvard Law School; Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm (D), a Harvard Law School graduate; Judge Diane P. Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit; and Leah Ward Sears, chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court.

Sotomayor would probably be a reliably liberal vote on a court split into conservative and liberal blocs on many major issues. But her friends, colleagues and former clerks say she would not be reflexively liberal or "results-oriented" but would adhere to the law and the Constitution.

"More than anything, I would call her a legal purist," said Julia Tarver Mason, who clerked for Sotomayor a decade ago. "I think she defies categorization in that sense because she really does make the law based on the law, in a purist fashion."

"She appreciates the complexity of issues," said Stephen L. Carter, a Yale professor who edited a piece by Sotomayor for the Yale Law Journal in 1979 and who teaches some of her opinions in his classes. Confronted with a tough case, Carter said, "she doesn't leap at its throat but reasons to get to the bottom of issues."

Klonoff recalls seeing flashes of her toughness in their law school days. "She would stand up for herself and not be intimidated by anyone," he said. If she won the appointment to the high court, he said, "I think she'd be the kind of justice who could change some minds."

Many of her former clerks speak of a softer side. While setting a demanding work pace, they said, she became a mentor to them and cared about their personal lives. The divorced Sotomayor, who has no children of her own, has told friends that her clerks are like her children.

"She's one of the best mentors I've ever had," Mason said. "She's given me advice about working in the legal profession, advice about my career, and about my personal life, about relationships."

Another former clerk, Jenny Rivera, now a law professor at New York University, recalled how when her mother died not long ago, Sotomayor called her regularly and came to the funeral. "I know she's very close to her mother," Rivera said. "I really appreciated her sense of caring for me and my brother."

Sotomayor, an avid Yankees fan, lives modestly, reporting virtually no assets despite her $179,500 yearly salary.

On her financial disclosure report for 2007, she said her only financial holdings were a Citibank checking and savings account, worth $50,000 to $115,000 combined.

During the previous four years, the money in the accounts at some points was listed as low as $30,000.

ar:2 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/06/AR2009050603762.html[5/8/2009 12:21:25 PM] Federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor Likely to Be on Obama's Supreme Court Shortlist - washingtonpost.com

When asked recently how she managed to file such streamlined reports, Sotomayor, according to a source, replied, "When you don't have money, it's easy. There isn't anything there to report."

Staff writers Joe Stephens in Washington and Robin Shulman in New York and staff researcher Madonna Lebling in Washington contributed to this report.

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ar:9 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/23045.html[5/29/2009 6:08:08 PM] Friends Provide a Glimpse Into Sotomayor's 'Very Full Life' - washingtonpost.com

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Supreme Court News, analysis and special features of the Supreme Court Supreme Court Home | The Nominee | Current Justices | Court News

Friends Provide Glimpse Into Nominee's 'Very Full Life'

By Keith B. Richburg, Robin Shulman and Nancy Trejos Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, May 31, 2009

NEW YORK -- Last November, soon after Barack Obama was elected president, a close friend of Judge Sonia Sotomayor's was hospitalized on Long Island because of a series of strokes.

THIS STORY Bias Case Looms Large for Nominee Friends Provide Glimpse Into Nominee's 'Very Full Life' Obama Cautions Against 'Political Games' With Court Pick Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a nominee to the Supreme Court, owns a condominium in this Speculation was already swirling that the new Greenwich Village building in New York. (By Craig Ruttle -- Associated Press) president might make Sotomayor his first pick should Enlarge Photo a vacancy open on the Supreme Court. Sotomayor also had a full caseload she was balancing as a judge on the TOOLBOX U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in Resize Print E-mail Manhattan. Yahoo! Buzz Yahoo! But three or four times a week, Sotomayor would Buzz COMMENT leave work around 7 p.m. to visit her friend. Ever the Comments urbanite, Sotomayor would pick up some chicken soup, get in her white Saab convertible and wind COMMENTS ARE CLOSED

through rush-hour traffic to Long Island to sit by the WHO'S BLOGGING bedside of a woman who was often unconscious and unaware that Sotomayor was there. Finally, the trips » Links to this article came to an end in April -- not because of the pressures of the trip on her busy life, but because her friend died.

Those visits, recounted by several of Sotomayor's closest friends, provide a telling glimpse into the private life of the woman nominated last week by President Obama to be ar:10 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/30/AR2009053002061.html?nav=emailpage[6/16/2009 7:02:24 PM] Friends Provide a Glimpse Into Sotomayor's 'Very Full Life' - washingtonpost.com

the next Supreme Court justice and the first Hispanic on the high court. The friends go on to describe her in laudatory, if predictable, ways: collegial, intensely loyal, a bedrock in crisis.

But another portrait emerges as well in their descriptions, one that sets her far apart from the retiring justice she would succeed, David H. Souter. Souter is known as a bookish recluse, a loner who hates airplanes and prefers the solitude of his New Hampshire hamlet called Weare, and is said to have no interest in overseas travel.

Sotomayor is precisely the opposite. Hers is a life that rises and falls on urban rhythms.

"They couldn't be more different," said Ellen Chapnick, dean of the social justice program at Columbia Law School and a close Sotomayor friend. "Not talking about judicial philosophy -- talking about personality type and how they spend their time: They couldn't be more different."

If Sotomayor is confirmed and moves to Washington, Chapnick said, "She'll probably find parts of the city to enjoy that other people don't even know are there."

A 54-year-old divorced woman who never had children, Sotomayor is said to be a workaholic who fills her free time with a huge network of close friends, extended family members, colleagues, former classmates and just about anyone else who has entered her circle. They are judges and lawyers and also secretaries and a mail carrier. She has more godchildren than her friends can count.

She is a gregarious and social New Yorker who loves dinner parties -- in restaurants, at friends' homes or lechon de asado for large gatherings at her two-bedroom apartment in the West Village. She loves dancing; a few years ago, she and friends took salsa lessons at a Tribeca dance studio to improve their moves. She loves shopping. And she loves travel, vacationing with close friends such as Ken Kinzer and his wife, Dawn Cardi. A trip to the Netherlands. Sailing around the Caribbean. Sailing, canoeing and biking around North Carolina's Outer Banks.

A woman from a humble background -- the South Bronx projects -- who now lives on an appellate judge's salary of $179,500, Sotomayor would be the court's poorest member. On financial disclosure forms, she lists her only assets as a Citibank checking and savings

account worth combined $50,000 to $115,000, plus the equity in her Greenwich Village Police Officer condo. BROOKLYN, NY - NYPD Director of Bids & Proposals Nonetheless, friends consider her generous with whatever money she has. When Kinzer, BROOKLYN, NY - WIRELESS GENERATION who owns a Brooklyn dry cleaning business, got into financial problems in the early Part-Time Package Handler (Entry Level) 1990s, Sotomayor offered him a loan of $15,000. "We needed some funds right away. YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY - UPS Sonia volunteered," he said. "I was taken aback, never expecting it. I've had family Part-Time Package Handler (Summer) YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY - UPS members say no to me." Part-Time Package Handler YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY - UPS

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ar:12 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/30/AR2009053002061.html?nav=emailpage[6/16/2009 7:02:24 PM] Friends Provide a Glimpse Into Sotomayor's 'Very Full Life' - washingtonpost.com

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Page 2 of 2 < Back Back Friends Provide Glimpse Into Nominee's 'Very Full Life'

Kinzer and Cardi became Sotomayor's friends in the 1980s when Cardi was working as a legal aid lawyer and Sotomayor was a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office. Cardi persuaded Sotomayor to move to their neighborhood, Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn, when there was a vacant apartment next door. Sotomayor later bought her own condo down the block, and the friends got together almost every night. "Whether I cooked or ordered in, she was always there at the dinner table," Kinzer said.

THIS STORY Bias Case Looms Large for Nominee Friends Provide Glimpse Into Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a nominee to the Nominee's 'Very Full Life' Supreme Court, owns a condominium in this Obama Cautions Against 'Political Greenwich Village building in New York. (By Games' With Court Pick Craig Ruttle -- Associated Press) Enlarge Photo

Sotomayor only reluctantly left the neighborhood TOOLBOX when she became a judge in Manhattan, because rules Resize Print E-mail stipulate that judges must live in the district to which Yahoo! they are assigned. Still, Cardi said, the dinners Buzz Yahoo! Buzz continued at Sotomayor's new apartment, where the COMMENT women would kick off their shoes and order in Thai or 87 Comments | View All » Spanish food. Cardi and Sotomayor would also often go to Yankees games -- Sotomayor is a lifelong fan COMMENTS ARE CLOSED who grew up near Yankee Stadium -- but without WHO'S BLOGGING Kinzer, a Mets fan. » Links to this article Besides the Yankees and friendly poker nights with friends, Sotomayor also enjoys Broadway shows and dance -- Alvin Ailey or American Ballet Theatre. Sometimes, when she is too loaded down with work, she passes her tickets on to her clerks. ar:13 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/30/AR2009053002061_2.html?nav=emailpage&sid=ST2009053002165[6/16/2009 7:11:03 PM] Friends Provide a Glimpse Into Sotomayor's 'Very Full Life' - washingtonpost.com

And she often does work late, arriving home at 9:30 or 10 p.m. and placing a takeout order at Dallas Jones Bar-B-Q, a ribs-and-chicken joint near her apartment building. It's almost always the same order: the quarter chicken with two sides for $8.95, said Sam Barry, the woman who owns the restaurant.

"I didn't even know she's a big shot -- just the next-door woman," Barry said. "I didn't know her name. I only knew her as Sonia." She said when friends told her about the appointment and she saw the news photographers outside, she typed her regular client's name into the computer and saw it come up as Sonia Sotomayor.

Like most New Yorkers, Sotomayor eats out as much as at home. She's a regular on her block and in the neighborhood. Twice a week, between 11 a.m. and noon, she shows up at the Blue Ribbon Bakery on Bedford Street for three breadsticks, a decaf coffee and, sometimes, the sturgeon toast with whole-grain mustard, a few capers, olive oil, chives, sea salt and onions, said employee Milcar Cruz.

"When she comes here, we talk in Spanish, and we just talk about the weather sometimes, about how she's doing. She asks how we're doing. She's a great person. She's very humble," Cruz said.

Sotomayor also pops into a corner bodega for a Fresca and a neighborhood cheese shop for a favorite blue, and she sometimes takes her clerks on a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to get a slice of Patsy's pizza in Brooklyn.

The huge circle of people in her life, from a diversity of backgrounds, perhaps speaks to her own modest beginnings. Several friends told a story of the ceremony held for Sotomayor when she was elevated to the Appeals Court from the District Court. In her speech, she singled out the janitors and security guards by name, and talked warmly about how they had become a part of her life.

Never particularly athletic as a child, Sotomayor has lately tried to exercise several times a week at the courthouse gym and has hired a personal trainer at the nearby Equinox gym. She has also become an avid bicyclist, sometimes going up the West Side of Manhattan and cycling back down the East. Police Officer On top of her busy courtroom docket, Sotomayor also teaches and speaks regularly at BROOKLYN, NY - NYPD legal conferences and seminars. Director of Bids & Proposals BROOKLYN, NY - WIRELESS GENERATION

She has been co-teaching a class at Columbia University since 1999, called the Federal Part-Time Package Handler (Entry Level) Appellate Court Externship. Once a year, she teaches at the University of Puerto Rico, YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY - UPS where she and her mother, who was born on the island, travel around visiting relatives. Part-Time Package Handler (Summer) YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY - UPS "She reads, she dances, she's a normal person," Chapnick said. "She's a modern woman Part-Time Package Handler and leads a very full life." YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY - UPS SEE ALL JOBS Out of deference to her privacy, the one topic Sotomayor's friends won't discuss is her personal relationships. They said only that Sotomayor "does date." Find Your Dream Job Now!

She married her high school sweetheart, Kevin E. Noonan, in August 1976, and they divorced in 1983. She was engaged in the 1990s to Peter White, who worked in Jobs by SimplyHired construction and real estate, but they later broke up. FEATURED ADVERTISER LINKS

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ar:14 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/30/AR2009053002061_2.html?nav=emailpage&sid=ST2009053002165[6/16/2009 7:11:03 PM] A Look at Sotomayor’s Income and Her Spending - NYTimes.com Page 1 of 3

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By JO BECKER Published: June 5, 2009 Great Getaways - Travel Deals by E-Mail TWITTER Sign up for travel offers from NYTimes.com's premier advertisers. When John G. Roberts Jr. was named to the Supreme Court, he had SIGN IN TO E- MAIL a net worth of more than $6 million, accumulated during his See Sample | Privacy Policy lucrative years in private practice. When Samuel A. Alito Jr. was PRINT appointed, he had a net worth of more than $2 million, even though REPRINTS he had spent his entire professional career either in government or SHARE on the bench.

So how is it that Judge Sonia Multimedia Sotomayor, nominated by President Obama to follow those two men onto the nation’s highest court, reported a net worth of just $740,000 this week, with no stocks or bonds and a savings account of $31,985, just marginally more than she owes her dentist and credit card companies?

Milestones: Sonia Sotomayor To start with, although Judge Sotomayor became a partner during her eight years at the New York law firm Pavia & MOST POPULAR Harcourt before becoming a federal district judge in 1992, E-MAILED BLOGGED SEARCHED VIEWED her salary in her final year at the firm was $151,761, a far 1. Thomas L. Friedman: We’re No. 1(1)! cry from the $776,000 that Justice Roberts reported 2. Mind: Forget What You Know About Good Study pulling down in his last full year at the Washington-based Habits law firm Hogan & Hartson. 3. Frank Rich: Time for This Big Dog to Bite Back 4. Nicholas D. Kristof: Is This America? Between her salary as a circuit court judge and the money Sotomayor’s Senate Questionnaire 5. Resale Fees That Only Developers Could Love she made as a lecturer at Columbia University Law School, 6. Maureen Dowd: When Peggy Left Barry Judge Sotomayor made $205,330 last year. Still, the 7. 36 Hours in Charleston, S.C. judge, divorced and with no children, does live in Related 8. German Identity, Long Dormant, Reasserts Itself Greenwich Village, one of the more expensive 9. Your Money: In Using Software to Write a Will, a New Scrutiny of Judge’s Most Lawyer Is Still Helpful Controversial Case (June 6, 2009) neighborhoods in perhaps the most expensive city in the 10. Testing, the Chinese Way Economic Downturn Didn’t Spare country. Just parking a car here — she drives a white Saab Justices’ Bottom Lines Either convertible — can cost hundreds of dollars a month. Go to Complete List » (June 6, 2009) Times Topics: Sonia Sotomayor Judge Sotomayor bought her four-room, 980-square-foot apartment in 1998 for $360,000, records show — a price comparable to others sold in the building around that Blog time. The Caucus The latest on Today, Judge Sotomayor values the apartment at just President Obama, under $1 million, but records show that after refinancing the new several times, she owes $381,775 on her mortgage. In administration and other news from addition, the judge helps support her mother and her Washington and around the mother’s husband, the White House said. For estate nation. Join the discussion.

ar:15 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/06/us/politics/06assets.html?scp=71&sq=Judge+Sotoma... 9/12/2010 A Look at Sotomayor’s Income and Her Spending - NYTimes.com Page 2 of 3

More Politics News planning purposes, the White House said, Judge Sotomayor owns one-third of their Florida condominium, a stake she valued at $20,000 in the questionnaire she submitted to the Senate this week.

Besides living in an expensive area of the country, Judge Sotomayor has a taste for nice things and is an avid traveler.

Her destinations have ranged from the Caribbean to the Galápagos Islands, and she has been known to stop in at a casino on vacation. Last year, she reported hitting an $8,283 jackpot while visiting a Florida casino with her mother; a White House spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter, said the judge was not a regular gambler, though she added jokingly, “She is lucky.”

Judge Sotomayor has been described in interviews as an interior decorating buff who loves to shop. And she is a frequent patron of Manhattan restaurants, sometimes picking up the tab for dinner with clerks in SoHo or at Chinatown places like Joe’s Shanghai. ADVERTISEMENTS

Her Christmas preparations have become legendary among friends and former clerks. Find your dream home with Each year, according to the White House, she buys more than 60 presents for her nieces, The New York Times Real Estate

nephews, god-children, friends’ children and members of the court staff — including Follow The New York Times on

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See the news in the making. Watch Matthew Colangelo, who clerked for the judge in 2002-3, recalled her delight in finding TimesCast, a daily news video. the right gift, as well as the annual holiday party she used to give in the hallway near her office before it got too big. “Besides providing the food, and I think a D.J., she insisted that everyone come, not just the judges and the clerks but the deputies, marshals and building maintenance,” he said.

Another former clerk, Charu Chandrasekhar, who worked for the judge in 2004-5, said, “It was a shock to me to see that her assets were as small as they were, just given the way that she always was so unstinting with everyone.”

Despite her modest savings, Judge Sotomayor has a financial cushion — after 65, as a federal judge, she is entitled to a pension equal to her annual salary.

A version of this article appeared in print on June 6, 2009, on page More Articles in US » A12 of the New York edition.

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Past Coverage Speeches Show Judge's Steady Focus on Diversity and Struggle (June 5, 2009) Sotomayor Rose on Merit Alone, Her Allies Say (June 5, 2009) Balancing Act for Republican on Court Nominee (June 4, 2009) Debate on Whether Female Judges Decide Differently Arises Anew (June 4, 2009)

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Download Google Chrome Safely browse the web - Chrome will warn you of dangerous websites www.google.com/chrome ar:18 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/30/AR2009053002061_2.html?nav=emailpage&sid=ST2009053002165[6/16/2009 7:11:03 PM] Sotomayor’s personal assets top $1M, far less than others Obama considered for court

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Topics « White House contacted Sotomayor about high-court seat before Souter announced he would retire » Politics (28393) » Business (23974) Summary Box: Boeing May deliveries hold steady; orders fall as recession » India (23321) dampens plane demand » » Government Vote Sotomayor’s personal assets top $1M, far less (16502) 0 than others Obama considered for court » World (12906) » Crime (10036) Julie Hirschfeld Davis June 4th, 2009 » Economy (9816) Sotomayor’s » Industries (8695) personal assets top » Finance (8580) $1M » Military (8108) WASHINGTON — Complete List... Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor says her personal assets top $1 million.

Watch this video on www.youtube.com Her $1.16 million in Another Unfair Bailout assets include her Don't Let Congress Pass Another One Greenwich Village Help Stop The Brown Bailout Now condo, valued at youtube.com/brownbailout $997,500; a $20,000 Ads by Google stake in another condominium; and about $109,000 in cars and other personal property. Her financial statement shows she has $31,985 in the bank.

Sotomayor released details about her finances as part of a massive portfolio of documents she sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday in response to a questionnaire about her background and writings. It shows her personal assets amount to far less than others who President Obama considered nominating for the high court. Poll Sotomayor has $418,350 in debts, most of it mortgage debt.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below. Would you vote for Barack Obama if he contests today? WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor says the White House contacted her about serving on the high court four Yes days before Justice David Souter announced that he would retire. No Who is Obama? If she’s confirmed by the Senate, Sotomayor replaces Souter on the high court. View Results The appeals court judge divulged the April 27 call from White House counsel Gregory Craig in a massive portfolio of documents she sent to Comments the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee had asked that she complete a questionnaire about her finances, background and writings. Show all Polls

Souter announced May 1 that he would retire this fall. Amazon.com Sotomayor says no one ever asked her position during the selection Kindle Wireless Kindle 3G process about any issue that could come before the Supreme Court. Reading Device, Wireless Wi-Fi, 6" Reading Device, Display, Gra... Free 3G + Wi-Fi, Filed under Government, Politics | Tags: Judicial Appointments And Nominations, National Amazon.com 6"... New $139.00 Amazon.com Courts, North America, United States, Us-sotomayor-supreme-court, Washington | Comment Best $139.00 New $189.00 Below Best $189.00 Kindle Leather Kindle Lighted Cover, Black Leather Cover, Politics News National Courts News Amazon Digital Black ar:19 http://blog.taragana.com/n/sotomayors-personal-assets-top-1m-far-less-than-others-obama-considered-for-court-72364/[9/12/2010 10:39:53 PM] Sotomayor’s personal assets top $1M, far less than others Obama considered for court

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Two former Jharkhand ministers to be quizzed on corruption charges August 20th, 2009 RANCHI - Two former Jharkhand ministers, who are under judicial custody and facing charges of corruption, will be interrogated soon, vigilance department sources said Thursday. Harinarayan Rai, an independent legislator, and Enos Ekka of the Jharkhand Party surrendered in the vigilance court of Vinay Kant Khan Aug 17 and were sent to judicial custody.

Top Republican on Senate Judiciary Committee says he remains troubled by Sotomayor's record July 19th, 2009 Hearings fail to sway Sessions to Sotomayor's sideWASHINGTON — The top Republican on the Senate committee reviewing Sonia Sotomayor's nomination said Sunday her testimony did not settle his concerns about elevating her to the Supreme Court. "I was troubled by a number of the things the nominee has said, a number of the rulings she has made," said Alabama Sen.

Key Republican senator says he remains troubled by Sotomayor's rulings and remarks July 19th, 2009 Sessions remains troubled by Sotomayor's recordWASHINGTON — The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee says he remains troubled by some of Sonia Sotomayor's remarks and rulings. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama says he isn't ready to say whether he will vote for or against President Barack Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court.

Top GOP senator isn't predicting how many Republicans will support Sotomayor's confirmation July 19th, 2009 Senate GOP chief: Sotomayor won't get my voteWASHINGTON — The Senate's top Republican says he admires Judge Sonia Sotomayor's personal story but is not going to vote for her confirmation to the Supreme Court. Sen. Mitch McConnell says that he is "a big fan of her career" and biography.

Specter likes Sotomayor's record, but not her answers July 15th, 2009 Specter frustrated by nomineeWASHINGTON — As Sen. Arlen Specter sees it, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has an "exemplary" record on the bench.

ar:20 http://blog.taragana.com/n/sotomayors-personal-assets-top-1m-far-less-than-others-obama-considered-for-court-72364/[9/12/2010 10:39:53 PM] Sotomayor’s personal assets top $1M, far less than others Obama considered for court

Sotomayor denies she would let her personal views affect her rulings on high court July 14th, 2009 Sotomayor vows to use even hand in judging casesWASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has vowed to not let her personal views affect how she would rule on cases from the nation's highest court. In an exchange with the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, Sotomayor said she believes comments she has made about the value of life's experiences have been misinterpreted by her critics.

Former Jharkhand ministers abscond as their homes are searched July 2nd, 2009 RANCHI - Officials of the vigilance department Thursday raided the homes of two former Jharkahnd ministers Enos Ekka and Harinarayan Rai to arrest them on corruption charges. But neither was at home.

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Court approves sale of Fleetwood motor home assets to New York private equity for $53 million June 26th, 2009 Court OKs $53M sale of Fleetwood motor home assetsNEW YORK — Recreation vehicle maker Fleetwood Enterprises Inc., which has been operating under bankruptcy protection for three months, has received court approval to sell its motor home assets to a private equity firm for $53 million. The sale to New York-based American Industrial Partners Capital Fund IV LP includes two motor home manufacturing facilities and Fleetwood's Gold Shield supply subsidiary.

Judge consolidates Madoff's business, personal assets to streamline bankruptcy process June 9th, 2009 Judge consolidates Madoff bankruptcy casesNEW YORK — A federal judge has consolidated two bankruptcy cases involving Bernard Madoff's business and personal assets. The decision Tuesday by U.S.

Top Republican senator says Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination should hinge on impartiality June 7th, 2009 GOP says objectivity is key question for SotomayorWASHINGTON — The Alabama senator leading the GOP's vetting of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said the American tradition of impartial courts is "under attack" and the pivotal question in her nomination should be whether she allows personal views to color her decisions as a judge. Delivering the Republican Party's weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Sen.

For top Republican senator, Sotomayor's impartiality on bench is key to Supreme Court bid June 6th, 2009 Sotomayor's objectivity on bench is key questionWASHINGTON — The senator leading the GOP's review of Sonia Sotomayor said the central question in her Supreme Court nomination should be whether she allows personal views to color her decisions. In the Republican Party's weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Sen.

White House: Sotomayor's swift survey response builds case for timely confirmation hearings June 4th, 2009 White House builds case for swift confirmationWASHINGTON — The White House says Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's quick response to an extensive Senate survey should lead to swift confirmation hearings. White House counsel Gregory Craig said Sotomayor (soh-toh-my-YOR') completed substantive answers to the Senate Judiciary Committee's questions in nine days.

White House gives Senate panel documents on Sotomayor's speeches, writings, nomination June 4th, 2009 White House delivers Sotomayor files to SenateWASHINGTON — The White House delivered a huge portfolio of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's writings, speeches and rulings to Capitol Hill Wednesday, with details about the federal judge that will shape the debate over seating her on the court. The massive parcel of documents came in response to a questionnaire the Senate Judiciary Committee sends all federal court nominees.

Monaco says Navistar to buy most of its assets for $52 million April 25th, 2009 Monaco says Navistar to buy most of its assetsCOBURG, Ore. — RV maker Monaco Coach Corp. ar:21 http://blog.taragana.com/n/sotomayors-personal-assets-top-1m-far-less-than-others-obama-considered-for-court-72364/[9/12/2010 10:39:53 PM] Sotomayor’s personal assets top $1M, far less than others Obama considered for court

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ar:22 http://blog.taragana.com/n/sotomayors-personal-assets-top-1m-far-less-than-others-obama-considered-for-court-72364/[9/12/2010 10:39:53 PM] Little Information Given About Solo Law Practice Run by Sotomayor in ’80s - NYTimes.... Page 1 of 3

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Little Information Given About Solo Law Practice Run More Articles in US » by Sotomayor in ’80s Get the Opinion Today E-Mail

By SERGE F. KOVALESKI Sign up for the highlights of the day in Opinion, sent Published: July 6, 2009 weekday afternoons. TWITTER Since Sonia Sotomayor was nominated for a seat on the United SIGN IN TO E- See Sample | Privacy Policy MAIL States Supreme Court, her career and accomplishments have come to light in public and voluminous fashion. PRINT REPRINTS

Enlarge This Image Her Senate questionnaire lists dozens SHARE of her awards and honors, her letters to the editor of her college newspaper, her speeches and cases she handled as a prosecutor, a lawyer in private practice and, for the last 17 years, as a federal judge.

Yet as she moves through the confirmation process, Judge Sotomayor has explained very little about one facet of her legal life: Sotomayor & Associates, the solo law practice she ran out of her Brooklyn apartment for several years in

the 1980s. MOST POPULAR

E-MAILED BLOGGED SEARCHED VIEWED In her questionnaire, Judge Sotomayor says she was the “owner” of Sotomayor & Associates, which she described 1. Thomas L. Friedman: We’re No. 1(1)!

as a consulting business she operated on the side from 2. Mind: Forget What You Know About Good Study Sonia Sotomayor, seated behind Habits Robert M. Morgenthau, right, in an 1983 to 1986. During this period, she also worked, first for 3. Frank Rich: Time for This Big Dog to Bite Back undated photo. the Manhattan district attorney’s office and then as a 4. 36 Hours in Charleston, S.C. member of Pavia & Harcourt, a large firm in Manhattan. 5. German Identity, Long Dormant, Reasserts Itself Related 6. Resale Fees That Only Developers Could Love Times Topics: Sonia Sotomayor As a single practitioner, she told the Senate, she had 7. Nicholas D. Kristof: Is This America? helped “family and friends in their real estate, business 8. Maureen Dowd: When Peggy Left Barry and estate planning decisions.” The only other thing she Blog 9. A G.O.P. Leader Tightly Bound to Lobbyists has said about the practice is that if her clients “required The Caucus 10. China Explores a Frontier 2 Miles Deep more substantial legal representation, I referred the The latest on Go to Complete List » matter to my firm, Pavia & Harcourt, or to others with President Obama, the new appropriate expertise.” administration and other news from The White House has described Ms. Sotomayor’s outside Washington and around the legal work as an informal practice, one that never required nation. Join the discussion. her to file legal documents or appear in court. She never More Politics News incorporated Sotomayor & Associates or registered it as a business in Manhattan or Brooklyn, where she then lived, according to public records, though she was not required to do so. New York Fashion Week ALSO IN STYLE » Runway photo collections

ar:23 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/us/politics/07firm.html?scp=17&sq=Judge+Sotomay... 9/12/2010 Little Information Given About Solo Law Practice Run by Sotomayor in ’80s - NYTimes.... Page 2 of 3

Live updates from On the Runway Associates in the district attorney’s office and George M. Pavia, the senior partner of Pavia & Harcourt, said they did not recall that she had done outside legal work at the time. “It is news to me,” Mr. Pavia said. He said she likely cleared the outside work with her direct supervisor, who is now dead.

At the time she began her legal consulting work, Ms. Sotomayor was an assistant district ADVERTISEMENTS

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Fan The New York Times on White House communications officials said the judge no longer had copies of the tax Facebook

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work. A White House spokeswoman said at one point that because of the considerable See the news in the making. Watch passage of time, Judge Sotomayor could not estimate how many people she had TimesCast, a daily news video. counseled or remember their names.

The White House later provided names of three clients: an independent insurance salesman, no longer alive, for whom she helped review contracts; a cousin for whom she prepared a divorce — although the filing came a few years after the judge said she had stopped her outside work — and a friend who sought help setting up his dry cleaning business. The friend, Ken Kinzer, is married to one of the judge’s close friends, Dawn Cardi. Ms. Cardi, a lawyer, said initially that she did not recall the judge operating an outside legal practice. But Ms. Cardi said she subsequently remembered her friend’s assistance, and recalled that she gave her a pocketbook in appreciation.

Ms. Sotomayor’s outside work was approved, she said through a spokesman, by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which has a policy that governs such work. Although the White House said Judge Sotomayor earned income in 1983, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, Alicia Maxey Greene, initially said that the office did not allow prosecutors to charge for outside work. Generally, they were only allowed to help friends and family for free on a case-by-case basis.

Several former members of the office said they remembered the policy as being quite clear. “We were expressly prohibited from having a law practice on the side,” said Katharine Law, a friend of the judge who worked with her at the time.

But District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau said subsequently that his spokeswoman had been wrong and that the office had been quite liberal at the time in approving outside work by staff, even if they charged fees.

The judge’s choice of the name Sotomayor & Associates is regarded by some legal ethicists as a confusing departure for someone generally regarded as meticulous about preparation and following the rules.

Stephen Gillers, professor of legal ethics at New York University Law School, said Judge Sotomayor’s use of the larger-sounding title was “inadvisable because it is inaccurate.” He noted that bar associations frown on the use of the term “and associates” by single practitioners. “She could have just said, ‘Law Offices of Sonia Sotomayor,’ ” he said.

Bar associations have held that the use of such a name can be misleading. But Mr. Gillers said that since Ms. Sotomayor never appears to have advertised or to have put the name on letterhead, it is a technical issue and not one likely to ever have been cited by a disciplinary committee in the New York State court system. But he said that if the panel had received a complaint about the name, it would have required her to change it.

White House officials disagreed that the use of the name was a misstep, and they offered a written analysis by Hal R. Lieberman, a former disciplinary committee chief counsel in New York.

“Neither bar opinions nor cases to date have held that it was misleading for a sole practitioner to use the name ‘and Associates’ in such private communications,” he wrote

ar:24 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/us/politics/07firm.html?scp=17&sq=Judge+Sotomay... 9/12/2010 Little Information Given About Solo Law Practice Run by Sotomayor in ’80s - NYTimes.... Page 3 of 3

in an e-mail message. “In fact, in the early 1980s, no rule prohibited the use of ‘and Associates’ in these circumstances and the only authority regarding the use of ‘and Associates’ in an advertising context was advisory, not mandatory, and thus not readily enforceable.”

A White House spokesman, Ben LaBolt, said, “All of the clients were well aware of the limited services Judge Sotomayor could provide given the other positions she held.”

Mr. LaBolt said that Ms. Sotomayor came up with the name when she was filling out her tax returns. “It was necessary to list a name for the practice on her tax returns,” he said.

Tax experts say there was nothing in the law that requires a lawyer, or any other self- employed person, to create a corporate name to report income, or deductions, on the standard form, known as a Schedule C. Just one’s own name will do. But Mr. LaBolt pointed out that the 1983 copy of the form asked the filer to list his or her “business name.”

“Significant time was not spent in choosing a name,” he said.

A version of this article appeared in print on July 7, 2009, on page More Articles in US » A11 of the New York edition.

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Past Coverage Sotomayor's Recusals Suggest Impartiality (July 2, 2009) NEWS ANALYSIS; Roberts Court Shifts Right, Tipped by Kennedy (July 1, 2009) In '98, Hints From Sotomayor on Death Penalty (June 25, 2009) Judge's Mentor: Part Guide, Part Foil (June 22, 2009)

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A Judge’s Own Story Highlights Her Mother’s More Articles in US » By SCOTT SHANE and MANNY FERNANDEZ Great Getaways - Travel Deals by E-Mail Published: May 27, 2009 TWITTER Sign up for travel offers from NYTimes.com's premier advertisers. WASHINGTON — The morning Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed as SIGN IN TO E- MAIL a federal appeals court judge in 1998, she began calling her mother See Sample | Privacy Policy to share the good news. Her brother, Juan, joined in the hunt, and PRINT they kept calling all day long, exasperated and a little concerned until SINGLE PAGE they finally reached her at home in the evening. REPRINTS

SHARE Enlarge This Image It turned out that their mother, a nurse who had become a sort of one- woman social services agency for her sprawling apartment complex, had spent the day accompanying an ailing neighbor to the doctor.

The White House It was classic Celina Sotomayor, a glimpse of the Celina Sotomayor, left, with her indefatigable woman who overcame stark deprivation in daughter, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Puerto Rico during childhood, escaped by way of the Advertise on NYTimes.com military during World War II, was widowed at an early Multimedia MOST POPULAR age, and supported her two children on their way to E-MAILED BLOGGED SEARCHED VIEWED professional success in law and, for Juan Sotomayor, 1. Thomas L. Friedman: We’re No. 1(1)! medicine. 2. Mind: Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits Mrs. Sotomayor, 81, was not hard to find on Tuesday, the 3. Frank Rich: Time for This Big Dog to Bite Back day President Obama chose her daughter for the Supreme 4. 36 Hours in Charleston, S.C. Court. She was the one weeping copiously on national 5. Nicholas D. Kristof: Is This America? Milestones: Sonia Sotomayor television as Sonia Sotomayor expressed her gratitude. 6. German Identity, Long Dormant, Reasserts Itself

“I have often said that I am all I am because of her, and I 7. Resale Fees That Only Developers Could Love 8. Maureen Dowd: When Peggy Left Barry am only half the woman she is,” Judge Sotomayor said, in 9. Your Money: In Using Software to Write a Will, a a moment of raw emotion that has resonated with mothers Lawyer Is Still Helpful and daughters far beyond the White House. 10. China Explores a Frontier 2 Miles Deep

“I thank you for all that you have given me and continue to Go to Complete List »

Voices From a Jurist’s History give me,” she continued, addressing her mother and stepfather, Omar Lopez.

President Obama referred to Judge Sotomayor’s Related “extraordinary journey” from an East Bronx housing Sotomayor’s Opponents and Allies project to the federal appellate bench. But her mother’s Prepare Strategies (May 28, 2009) life, beginning on the impoverished island where she was Times Topics: Sonia Sotomayor born in the farming community of Lajas in 1927, seems as compelling in its own right. Blog

ar:26 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/us/politics/28mother.html?scp=68&sq=Judge+Sotom... 9/12/2010 A Judge’s Own Story Highlights Her Mother’s - NYTimes.com Page 2 of 3

The Caucus The latest on As a schoolgirl, Celina Baez told friends, she and her four President Obama, siblings had only one pencil to share; it was guarded by the new her parents and doled out carefully. She memorized her administration lessons by pretending to teach them to the trees behind and other news from her modest home, assigning a pupil’s name to each one Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion. and wielding a stick as a pointer.

More Politics News In those days, Judge Sotomayor recalled in a lengthy tribute to her mother at the 1998 appeals court ceremony, the island’s per capita income of $200 was less than a quarter of that in the poorest state, and the literacy rate was 39 percent.

From that meager start, Celina’s life grew tougher. Her mother, bedridden with health problems for years, died when Celina was 9, and her father promptly abandoned the family. Celina was raised by her older sister, Aurora, in San Germán, P.R. ADVERTISEMENTS

She escaped at 17 by enlisting in the Women’s Army Corps, arriving in Georgia for Find your dream home with training in 1944, speaking little English and unfamiliar even with how telephones The New York Times Real Estate

worked. After her service, she married another Puerto Rican, Juan Luis Sotomayor, who Fan The New York Times on Facebook went to work as a tool-and-die worker while she completed her high school equivalency The new issue of T is here certificate at James Monroe High School in the Bronx.

See the news in the making. Watch Mrs. Sotomayor got a job at Prospect Hospital, a small private facility in the South Bronx TimesCast, a daily news video. where she would spend 35 years. She started as a telephone operator, and with the owner’s encouragement, obtained a practical nurse’s license.

Mr. Sotomayor’s death of a heart attack at 42, when Sonia was 9, made Mrs. Sotomayor the family’s sole support. She scrimped to put the children through Roman Catholic schools and to buy the only set of Encyclopaedia Britannica in their Bronx housing project.

“My brother and I plagiarized many a school report from those books, but I can remember the enormous financial burden that purchase placed on my mother,” Judge Sotomayor recalled in 1998.

When the family moved to Co-Op City in the late 1960s, a definite step up, Mrs. Sotomayor took the smaller of the two bedrooms, dividing the larger one for Sonia and Juan, neighbors remembered.

Sonia Sotomayor’s friends remember her mother as a strict parent who insisted on hard work at school and kept a close eye on who her children’s friends were. “They had their rules,” recalled Jeanette Valdespino-Torres, a childhood friend of Judge Sotomayor. “She worked, and basically no one was allowed out of the house until she came home from Advertise on NYTimes.com work.”

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Scott Shane reported from Washington, and Manny Fernandez from New York. Reporting was contributed by Eric Lichtblau in Washington, David Gonzalez and Colin Moynihan in New York and Carmen Gentile Jr. in Margate, Fla. Kitty Bennett contributed research from Washington.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 30, 2009 A picture on Thursday with an article about the mother of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court, was published in error. The woman in a checkered jacket, shown with Judge Sotomayor at a party in 1998, is Frances Hack, a former office administrator at the judge’s former law firm; she is not Celina Sotomayor, the judge’s mother.

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A Judge’s Own Story Highlights Her Mother’s More Articles in US » Published: May 27, 2009 Great Getaways - Travel Deals by E-Mail TWITTER Sign up for travel offers from NYTimes.com's premier (Page 2 of 2) advertisers. SIGN IN TO E- MAIL But she also made visiting teenagers feel valued, recalled Kenneth K. See Sample | Privacy Policy PRINT Moy, a friend of Sonia at Cardinal Spellman High School. “She would SINGLE PAGE really listen, and she treated the teenager as someone with the chops to make a decision,” Mr. Moy said. REPRINTS SHARE The apartment, he said, was “a Multimedia welcoming and communal place,” where members of the Sotomayors’ extended family often seemed to stop by for counsel. “When people in the family had troubles or concerns, they’d come to Celina and say, ‘What do you think?’ ”

Milestones: Sonia Sotomayor Despite the demands on her as a single mother, recalled Dinorah Tirado, a friend and Co-Op City neighbor for many years, Mrs. Sotomayor never complained. “Never, never,” Mrs. Tirado said. “She never said, ‘It’s hard,’ or ‘I MOST POPULAR can’t make ends meet.’ ” E-MAILED BLOGGED SEARCHED VIEWED

At the sprawling apartment building, she became 1. Thomas L. Friedman: We’re No. 1(1)! unofficial medical consultant, Mrs. Tirado said. When 2. Mind: Forget What You Know About Good Study another neighbor had cancer, Mrs. Sotomayor would rise Habits Voices From a Jurist’s History early each day before work to make and deliver her 3. Frank Rich: Time for This Big Dog to Bite Back 4. 36 Hours in Charleston, S.C. breakfast. Friends turned to her with every ailment. 5. Nicholas D. Kristof: Is This America? Related “Whoever was sick rang the doorbell,” Mrs. Tirado said. 6. German Identity, Long Dormant, Reasserts Itself Sotomayor’s Opponents and Allies Mrs. Sotomayor, she recalled, even “removed my cat’s 7. Resale Fees That Only Developers Could Love Prepare Strategies (May 28, 2009) stitches.” 8. Maureen Dowd: When Peggy Left Barry Times Topics: Sonia Sotomayor 9. Your Money: In Using Software to Write a Will, a During Sonia’s junior year at Cardinal Spellman, her Lawyer Is Still Helpful 10. China Explores a Frontier 2 Miles Deep Blog mother sat the two children down and proposed that she go to college to earn her registered nurse degree, Go to Complete List » The Caucus The latest on increasing her income to make up for the impending loss President Obama, of her late husband’s Social Security benefit. the new administration “My mom was like no student I knew,” the judge wrote in and other news from 1998. “She got home from school or work and literally Washington and around the immersed herself in her studies, working until midnight or nation. Join the discussion. beyond, only to get up again before all of us.” More Politics News Mrs. Sotomayor became Prospect Hospital’s emergency room supervisor until the hospital closed in the mid-

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1980s. She then worked at a methadone clinic in the South Bronx until retiring in the early 1990s, not long after she met Mr. Lopez. They married and now live in a retirement community in Margate, Fla., where Mr. Lopez works in an auto parts store. Mrs. Sotomayor takes morning walks with a friend, Sylvia Gutierriez, who said they talk about movies or music — “no politics, no religious stuff.”

A gaggle of reporters was waiting in the rain when Celina Sotomayor arrived home on Wednesday afternoon from Washington.

Not for the first time, and not for the last, she spoke of her pride in her daughter, alternating English and Spanish.

“She was always intelligent and focused,” the mother said.

Did she believe her daughter would get through the Senate confirmation process without trouble? “Esperamos,” she replied — We hope. ADVERTISEMENTS

As for her own role in raising the possible future Supreme Court justice? Find your dream home with The New York Times Real Estate “I don’t know what I did,” Celina Sotomayor said. “I was just there.” Follow The New York Times on Twitter « PREVIOUS PAGE 1 2 Watch today's top videos

Scott Shane reported from Washington, and Manny Fernandez from New York. See the news in the making. Watch TimesCast, a daily news video. Reporting was contributed by Eric Lichtblau in Washington, David Gonzalez and Colin Moynihan in New York and Carmen Gentile Jr. in Margate, Fla. Kitty Bennett contributed research from Washington.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

A version of this article appeared in print on May 28, 2009, on page More Articles in US » A16 of the New York edition.

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Sotomayor Is Recalled as a Driven Rookie Prosecutor More Articles in US » By BENJAMIN WEISER and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM Great Getaways - Travel Deals by E-Mail Published: June 7, 2009 TWITTER Sign up for travel offers from NYTimes.com's premier advertisers. In the early 1980s, the New York police were stumped by a violent SIGN IN TO E- MAIL crime spree in Harlem. Four killings. Seven other shootings. All in See Sample | Privacy Policy the course of at least 20 burglaries — during which the culprit PRINT seemed to float into tenement apartments and leave no sign of forced SINGLE PAGE entry. REPRINTS

SHARE Enlarge This Image The burglar — sometimes armed with two guns, sometimes with one — seemed to open fire for no reason. In a city buckling under the grim yoke of street crime and a drug plague, the random and wanton nature of the shootings startled even jaded New Yorkers.

Eventually, the police arrested Richard Maddicks, a drug

addict, in the crimes. An athletic and acrobatic man and a Advertise on NYTimes.com longtime burglar, he was on probation when arrested. Mr.

Maddicks had swung down from the rooftops or had MOST POPULAR Sonia Sotomayor, center, joined the nimbly traversed airshafts on narrow planks to enter the E-MAILED BLOGGED SEARCHED VIEWED office of District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau, at right, in 1979. They apartments and shoot and rob his victims. are pictured with his staff in an 1. Thomas L. Friedman: We’re No. 1(1)! undated photograph. He was called the “Tarzan Murderer,” and he was tried by 2. Mind: Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits two prosecutors, one of them a young woman from the Multimedia 3. Frank Rich: Time for This Big Dog to Bite Back Bronx, an assistant district attorney with a Yale law degree 4. Nicholas D. Kristof: Is This America? and no previous history of handling homicides. That 5. Maureen Dowd: When Peggy Left Barry prosecutor was Sonia Sotomayor. 6. Resale Fees That Only Developers Could Love 7. 36 Hours in Charleston, S.C. “Crime is always awful and exacts a huge toll on its 8. German Identity, Long Dormant, Reasserts Itself victims, but this one was a step above — it was simply evil, 9. Your Money: In Using Software to Write a Will, a and it affects you more profoundly than the run-of-the- Lawyer Is Still Helpful Voices From a Jurist’s History mill crimes,” Nancy E. Gray, who started in the Manhattan 10. Testing, the Chinese Way district attorney’s office on the same day as Ms. Go to Complete List » Sotomayor, said of the case.

The 1983 trial lasted four weeks and had 40 witnesses, including pathologists, a ballistics expert and a cartographer. Ms. Sotomayor, who assisted a lead prosecutor in the case, handled half the witnesses. Her Milestones: Sonia Sotomayor partner, Hugh Mo, recalled that one of her direct examinations of the sister of a victim brought every juror to tears. Mr. Maddicks was convicted and was sentenced to

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a prison term that will likely keep him behind bars for the Related rest of his life. Times Topics: Sonia Sotomayor Document Reader: Sotomayor's “I think she really stared down evil,” Ms. Gray said. Senate Questionnaire That case was one of the “10 most significant litigated Blog matters” that Ms. Sotomayor, whom President Obama has nominated for the United States Supreme Court, listed on The Caucus a questionnaire she filled out for the Senate Judiciary The latest on President Obama, Committee. It was made public last week. the new administration Although most of the 10 stemmed from her later private and other news from practice, she included two others from her days in the Washington and around the district attorney’s office. One was a child pornography nation. Join the discussion. case; the other stemmed from a shooting in a housing More Politics News project in Manhattan. ADVERTISEMENTS

Ms. Sotomayor spent about five years as a prosecutor. Find your dream home with Interviews with her colleagues and supervisors painted a portrait of a frightened rookie The New York Times Real Estate

prosecutor who quickly gained the confidence and the trust of others. She became a Fan The New York Times on Facebook driven and focused prosecutor who easily fit in, whether in debating fine points of law Watch today's top videos with lawyers or judges or in interviewing a victim whom she perhaps recognized in broad

outlines from her own upbringing in the Bronx. See the news in the making. Watch TimesCast, a daily news video.

“She had a foot in both worlds, and she was comfortable in both of those worlds,” said Richard H. Girgenti, a former supervisor.

Peter M. Kougasian, a friend who attended Princeton and Yale Law School with her and joined the district attorney’s office at the same time, in 1979, said he was struck by her maturity as a young prosecutor.

“When you walk into a courtroom and say you represent the people of the State of New York, I think for her that was not just an abstraction,” he said.

“She had experienced so many aspects of life that make up a great city,” he added, “that when she said that, you had the feeling that she knew what she was talking about in a way that the rest of us maybe didn’t.”

She joined the office out of Yale Law School, where, in 1979, an alumnus, Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, was visiting and recruiting potential prosecutors when he ran into José A. Cabranes, then general counsel for the university.

Mr. Morgenthau asked Mr. Cabranes, now a federal appellate judge, whether he had any

promising candidates for him. Mr. Morgenthau, a former federal prosecutor, was looking Advertise on NYTimes.com

to upgrade the caliber of lawyers working in his less-glamorous state office.

“He said, ‘I have one student who I don’t think has ever thought of being an assistant district attorney, but I think it would be good for her and good for your office,’ ” Mr. Morgenthau said, recalling the chance meeting. “I told him to have her call me, and she did.”

Ms. Sotomayor joined the office later that year. Crime in the city was a crisis. Drugs were tearing the fabric of the five boroughs. Dealers would set up shop on the top floors of tenements on the Lower East Side and lines of addicts would snake down the steps and outside onto the street.

An assistant district attorney in Manhattan was on the front lines of the fight against that chaotic and often violent life in the city. And resources were stretched thin. Prosecutors spent much of their time dealing with frightened victims, jaded police officers and reluctant witnesses.

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Sotomayor Is Recalled as a Driven Rookie Prosecutor More Articles in US » Published: June 7, 2009 Great Getaways - Travel Deals by E-Mail TWITTER Sign up for travel offers from NYTimes.com's premier (Page 2 of 2) advertisers. SIGN IN TO E- MAIL In a 1983 interview with The New York Times — part of an article on See Sample | Privacy Policy PRINT Mr. Morgenthau’s office — Ms. Sotomayor recalled feeling “a SINGLE PAGE tremendous amount of pressure from my community, from the third -world community, at Yale. REPRINTS SHARE “They could not understand why I was Multimedia taking this job,” she added. “I’m not sure I’ve ever resolved that problem.”

As a new assistant, Ms. Sotomayor was assigned to Trial Bureau 50, a unit of more than two dozen prosecutors who handled everything from misdemeanors to killings. Marsha Papanek, a prosecutor

Voices From a Jurist’s History who was training Ms. Sotomayor, recalled her as “really impressive” but nervous as she was thrown into action, Advertise on NYTimes.com responsible for a whole calendar of cases, 50 or 60 of

them. MOST POPULAR

E-MAILED BLOGGED SEARCHED VIEWED “I just remember at that particular point,” Ms. Papanek 1. Thomas L. Friedman: We’re No. 1(1)! said, “she was like all the others that start: scared to death 2. Mind: Forget What You Know About Good Study to go in front of a criminal court judge.” Habits 3. Frank Rich: Time for This Big Dog to Bite Back Milestones: Sonia Sotomayor Warren J. Murray, Ms. Sotomayor’s supervisor for most of 4. Nicholas D. Kristof: Is This America? her tenure in the office, said she started with 5. Maureen Dowd: When Peggy Left Barry misdemeanors and handled everything from disorderly 6. Resale Fees That Only Developers Could Love Related conduct to murder — “whatever comes in the door.” At the 7. 36 Hours in Charleston, S.C. Times Topics: Sonia Sotomayor time, Mr. Murray recalled, “the problem was there were 8. German Identity, Long Dormant, Reasserts Itself Document Reader: Sotomayor's too many cases and not enough resources, and that 9. Your Money: In Using Software to Write a Will, a Senate Questionnaire included the police as well.” Lawyer Is Still Helpful 10. Testing, the Chinese Way Blog But he recalled her standing fast before judicial pressure, Go to Complete List » The Caucus which, he noted, was difficult because much of her work The latest on was before Justice Harold J. Rothwax, an unusually tough President Obama, jurist. the new administration Mr. Murray said she brought together a quick wit, a and other news from forceful nature and compassion. “She was tough — no Washington and around the nonsense — but also persuasive with people,” he said. nation. Join the discussion. More Politics News The prosecutors of Trial Bureau 50 worked in drab sixth- floor offices at 100 Centre Street in Lower Manhattan, sometimes sharing offices because of a lack of space.

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In one of her major prosecutions, Ms. Sotomayor helped win convictions of two men in a child pornography case. These were the first child pornography convictions in the state after the United States Supreme Court upheld New York’s law that barred the sale of sexually explicit films using children.

“She had the jury crying about what these guys were doing to kids,” Mr. Murray recalled.

Another case, a 1983 trial involving a shooting in a housing project, was challenging because of witnesses who had “significant credibility issues,” she wrote in her Senate questionnaire. In the end, she convicted one of three defendants, but she impressed defense lawyers with her commitment and preparation.

One lawyer, Stephen Goldenberg, recalled the judge saying he would take up a legal issue the next day, and Ms. Sotomayor showing up in the morning with a formal brief on the matter. ADVERTISEMENTS

“It took us by surprise,” Mr. Goldenberg said. “We were prepared to argue the law off the Find your dream home with top of our heads.” The New York Times Real Estate

Follow The New York Times on Later that year, in The Times’s article on Mr. Morgenthau, she was described as an Twitter

imposing woman of 29 who smoked cigarettes incessantly and spoke deliberately of how The new issue of T is here she had coped with the job. See the news in the making. Watch TimesCast, a daily news video. “The one thing I have found,” she said, “is that if you come into the criminal justice system on a prosecutorial or defense level thinking that you can change the ills of society, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. This is not where those kinds of changes have to be made.

“It pains me,” she said in the article, “when I meet particularly bright defendants — and

I’ve met quite a few of them — people who, if they had had the right guidance, the right education, the right breaks, could have been contributing members of our society. When they get convicted, there’s a satisfaction, because they’re doing things that are dangerous. But there are also nights when I sit back and say, ‘My God, what a waste!’ ”

Ms. Gray, her former colleague in the office, said, “I think she wanted to make sure that her cases were solid and that she was dispensing justice before just locking someone up or putting them away, as opposed to being an overzealous prosecutor who believed that if you were arrested you were automatically guilty.”

In 1984, Ms. Sotomayor left the office to go into private practice, but she stuck with civil cases, not criminal defense work.

“She often said that she thought it would be very difficult to be a criminal defense attorney,” said Dawn M. Cardi, a former Legal Aid lawyer who represented clients in cases prosecuted by Ms. Sotomayor. “That wasn’t her nature or inclination.”

But Ms. Cardi, who has become a close friend of Ms. Sotomayor’s, said their differences may have solidified their bond.

“I was in many ways bringing to her a different viewpoint, and one that she didn’t want to lose,” Ms. Cardi said.

In 1985, Ms. Sotomayor was again interviewed by The Times. She sounded somewhat dispirited about the seemingly endless cycle of cases in a city whose crime problems were only worsening.

“After a while, you forget there are decent, law-abiding people in life,” she said. “In one of the last cases I had, for gun possession, I thought I recognized the defendant’s name. So I looked at his sheet and, sure enough, he was one of the first defendants I had had.”

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A version of this article appeared in print on June 8, 2009, on page More Articles in US » A13 of the New York edition.

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Past Coverage For Sotomayor and Thomas, Paths Diverge at Race (June 7, 2009) New Scrutiny of Judge's Most Controversial Case (June 6, 2009) Behind Judge's Spending and Income (June 6, 2009) Speeches Show Judge's Steady Focus on Diversity and Struggle (June 5, 2009)

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