Ms. Sonia Sotomayor Becomes the First Hispanic Justice and the Third Woman on the Supreme Court

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 55, has become the first person of Hispanic descent and the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court in the history of the United States. The new Justice is our 111th and is the first to be nominated by a Democratic President since 1994!
Personally I am thrilled. I think she will be an excellent and fair Supreme Court Justice and look forward to the years to come to see how she votes.

It was around 11:00a.m. this morning when Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. administered two oaths to Ms. Sotomayer in private ceremonies at the Supreme Court building.

The first ceremony was attended only by her relatives and a court photographer. This was a standard oath that all employees of the federal government take swearing that they will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

The second oath was administered in front of about 60 family and friends in which she swore to administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that she will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon her under the Constitution and laws of the United States.

The young woman who grew up in a Bronx housing project by a widowed mom attended two Ivy League universities, Princeton where she got a full scholarship and Yale Law School. She worked as a prosecutor in the office of the Manhattan district attorney and then left to try out the corporate world as an attorney.

Ms. Sotomayer was active in civic affairs. She joined the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and won appointments to the New York City Campaign Finance Board and the board of the State of New York Mortgage Agency.

It was Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democrat from New York, who noticed her and recommended that President George H.W. Bush appoint Ms. Sotomaer to the federal bench. President Bill Clinton later appointed her to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit where she spent 17 years. President Obama nominated her in May to succeed retiring Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter.

Justice Sotomayer's rise to today's events took of course her entire life but more recently 10-weeks of confirmation hearings. Republicans attacked her as being too much of an activist when it came to the law and of course repeated and repeated various speeches and phrases Sotmayer has used.

I consider her superbly fit to be a Justice. She is brilliant, qualified and this writer believes she will be fair to all.

No Democrats voted against her and only 9 Republicans did. My good wishes to our new Supreme Court Judge.

Sources

New York Times
MSNBC