Section 2: Justice Sotomayor the Supreme Court
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College of William & Mary Law School William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository Supreme Court Preview Conferences, Events, and Lectures 2009 Section 2: Justice Sotomayor The uprS eme Court Institute of Bill of Rights Law at the William & Mary Law School Repository Citation Institute of Bill of Rights Law at the William & Mary Law School, "Section 2: Justice Sotomayor The uS preme Court" (2009). Supreme Court Preview. 205. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/preview/205 Copyright c 2009 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/preview II. JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR THE SUPREME COURT In this Section: "Obama Chooses Sotomayor for Supreme Court Nominee" p. 39 Jeff Zeleny "From Humble Orgins, a Court Nominee in Obama's Image" p. 41 Joan Biskupic and Martha T. Moore *Sotomayor's Record Sets off Few Ideological Alarm Bells" p. 45 David G. Savage and Christie Parsons "Uncommon Detail Marks Rulings by Sotomayor" p. 48 Jerry Markon "Queries on Abortion and Guns Fail to Break Judge's Stride" p. 52 Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Neil A. Lewis "Diversity a Touchy Subject at Sotomayor Hearings" p. 55 James Oliphant and David G. Savage "She's Come Redone" p. 58 Dahlia Lithwick "A Judge's View of Judging Is on the Record" p. 61 Charles Savage "Identity Politics and Sotomayor" p. 63 Stuart Taylor "Her Justice Is Blind" p. 66 Thomas Goldstein "The Sotomayor Nomination" p. 68 Richard Epstein "Opposing View: A Confirmation Conversation" p. 70 Jeff Sessions "Vote No on Sotomayor" p. 71 David McIntosh "Why Sotomayor Is Such a Good Pick" p. 73 Erwin Chemerinsky 37 "The Judge Sotomayor I've Faced" p. 74 Floyd Abrams "Every Justice Creates a New Court" p. 76 Linda Greenhouse 38 "Obama Chooses Sotomayor for Supreme Court Nominee" The New York Times May 26, 2009 Jeff Zelenv President Obama will nominate Judge Sonia Supreme Court vacancy. Later Monday Sotomayor of the United States Court of night, Mr. Obama called the three other Appeals for the Second Circuit as his first finalists-Judge Diane P Wood of Chicago, appointment to the court, officials said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Tuesday, and has scheduled an Napolitano and Solicitor General Elena announcement for 10:15 a.m. at the White Kagan-to inform them that he had selected House. Judge Sotomayor. If confirmed by the Democratic-controlled White House officials worked into the night Senate, Judge Sotomayor, 54, would replace to prepare for the announcement, without Justice David H. Souter to become the knowing who it would be. second woman on the court and only the third female justice in the history of the Judge Sotomayor has sat for the last 11 Supreme Court. She also would be the first years on the federal appeals bench in Hispanic justice to serve on the Supreme Manhattan. As the top federal appeals court Court. in the nation's commercial center, the court is known in particular for its expertise in Conservative groups reacted with sharp corporate and securities law. For six years criticism on Tuesday morning. before that, she was a federal district judge in New York. "Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own In what may be her best-known ruling, personal political agenda is more important Judge Sotomayor issued an injunction than the law as written," said Wendy E. against major league baseball owners in Long, counsel to the Judicial Confirmation April 1995, effectively ending a baseball Network. "She thinks that judges should strike of nearly eight months, the longest dictate policy, and that one's sex, race, and work stoppage in professional sports history, ethnicity ought to affect the decisions one which had led to the cancellation of the renders from the bench." World Series for the first time in 90 years. The president reached his decision over the Born in the Bronx on June 23, 1954, she was long Memorial Day weekend, aides said, but diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 8. Her it was not disclosed until Tuesday morning father, a factory worker, died a year later. when he informed his advisers of his choice Her mother, a nurse at a methadone clinic, less than three hours before the raised her daughter and a younger son on a announcement was scheduled to take place. modest salary. Mr. Obama telephoned Judge Sotomayor at Judge Sotomayor graduated from Princeton 9 p.m. on Monday, officials said, advising University summa cum laude in 1976 and her that she was his choice to fill the attended Yale Law School, where she was 39 an editor of the Yale Law Journal. She spent child custody and complex business cases. five years as a prosecutor with the Her most high-profile case involved New Manhattan district attornev's office before Haven's decision to toss out tests used to entering private practice. evaluate candidates for promotion in the fire department because there were no minority But she longed to return to public service, candidates at the top of the list. she said, inspired by the "Perry Mason" series she watched as a child. In 1992, She was part of a panel that rejected the Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan challenge brought by white firefighters who recommended the politically centrist lawyer scored high but were denied promotion. to President George H. W. Bush, making Frank Ricci, the lead plaintiff, argued that it good on a longstanding promise to appoint a was unfair he was denied promotion after he Hispanic judge in New York. had studied intensively for the exam and even paid for special coaching to overcome On the Circuit Court, she has been involved his dyslexia. The case produced a heated in few controversial issues like abortion. split in the Circuit Court and is now before Some of her most notable decisions came in the Supreme Court. 40 "From Humble Origins, a Court Nominee in Obama's Image" USA Today May 25, 2009 Joan Biskupic and Martha T Moore As Supreme Court nominee Sonia education who didn't speak English. He died Sotomayor stood next to President Obama when she was 9. on Tuesday, she admitted to being a bit nervous and "deeply moved." If approved by the Senate, Sotomayor would be the third woman ever to join the high And then the Puerto Rican child of the court and the second on the current bench, housing projects in the Bronx, N.Y., made it joining Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In announcing clear who she believed was mostly his choice as a successor to retiring Justice responsible for her being in position to David Souter and the first high-court become the first Hispanic on the Supreme nomination of his tenure, Obama called Court: her mother. Sotomayor an "inspiring woman who I believe will make a great justice." "I have often said that I am all I am because of her, and I am only half the woman she As a successor to the liberal Souter on the is," Sotomayor said of Celina Sotomayor, divided, nine-member court, Sotomayor is who worked as a nurse six days a week to not likely to tip the ideological balance of support her family. the bench. Yet she would bring diversity to the court-whose members include eight Obama's selection of Sonia Sotomayor, 54, whites and one African American drew an emotional wave of praise from (conservative Clarence Thomas)-not only Hispanic groups. Sotomayor's story-a in her ethnicity, but in how she arrived at the minority rising from humble beginnings to, high court. potentially, the top rungs of American government-rivals that of Obama himself, Sotomayor won a scholarship to Princeton, and suggests a steeliness that could be then attended Yale Law School. She became helpful in a Senate confirmation process that a prosecutor in New York, then a corporate can be intimidating. litigator, before being seated to a federal trial court by the first President Bush. Six In nominating Sotomayor, Obama talked as years later, President Clinton elevated her to much about her success story-from New a New York-based appeals court. York's projects to Princeton, Yale Law School and appointments to federal On Tuesday, Sotomayor presented herself judgeships-as he did about Sotomayor's much in the vein of the president, as views on the law. someone who beat the odds of economics, race and ethnicity in childhood. "She's faced down barriers, overcome the odds, lived out the American dream that "My heart today is bursting with gratitude," brought her parents here so long ago," she said. Obama said, noting that Sotomayor's father was a factory worker with a third-grade Lisa Zornberg, a former law clerk to 41 Sotomayor, said "the way she presented the least about Sotomayor and had never herself is entirely true to how she is as a met with her before Thursday, when she person. She is 100% authentic. She is a spent seven hours at the White House, dynamo. She is incredibly charming and including one with the president. very much about real-world pragmatism." 'Really an inspiration' Democrats, including Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., praised her The news of Sotomayor's nomination was ''exemplary record" and said he would work announced over the public-address system at closely with Republicans to win her old school, Cardinal Spellman High confirmation. School in the Bronx. Republican senators, including Minority And it echoed around the brick buildings of Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said the Bronxdale Houses, the public housing they would need time to review Sotomayor's complex where Sotomayor grew up.