Obama's Pick, Sonia Sotomayor, Reflects America

When Supreme Court Justice David Souter announced his planned
retirement, the pressure was on President Obama to add a second woman
to a bench.

At the same time, Obama was encouraged to pick the first Hipanic justice.

He did both, and a good deal more.

Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor
of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as his
first appointment to the high court, is to made at the White House this
morning.

While much will be made of the fact that Obama has chosen a woman of
Puerto Rican background to serve on a court that until the 1960s was
made up entirely of white man, the president has, as well, chosen a
jurist whose specific experience will make her a key player on a court
that, in ocming years, will be taking on more and more cases involving
financial and economic issues.

Judge Sotomayor's 11 years of service on the federal appeals bench
(as an appointee of Bill Clinton) have been served just a few blocks
from Wall Street in Manhattan, as were her six years as a federal judge
(as an appointee of George H.W. Bush as the recommendation of former
New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan).

"As the top federal appeals court in the nation's commercial center," the New York Times notes, "the court is known in particular for its expertise in corporate and securities law."

The daughter of a factory worker who died when she was a child,
Sotomayor -- who diagnosed with diabetes as an eight year old -- was
raised by her mother, a nurse at a methadone clinic. Inspired by "Perry
Mason" television programs, Sotomayor graduated from Princeton
University summa cum laude in 1976 and then from attended Yale Law
School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Before her appointment to the federal bench, Sotomayor as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan,working with D.A. Robert Morgenthau, who developed a reputation for policing -- or, at least trying to police -- Wall Street.

Obama
picked Sotomayor from a slate of women finalists that reportedly
included Judge Diane P. Wood of Chicago, Homeland Security Secretary
Janet Napolitano and Solicitor General Elena Kagan.

Sotomayor
was not the most liberal of the prospective jurists, but that did not
matter to conservatives who have been preparing for a fight. Wendy
Long, counsel to the right's Judicial Confirmation Network, came out
swinging: "Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first
order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important
than the law as written. She thinks that judges should dictate policy,
and that one's sex, race, and ethnicity ought to affect the decisions
one renders from the bench."

That's
a reference to a case involving applications for promotions within the
New Haven, Connecticut fire department, in which Sotomayor was a member
of a judicial panel that objected to tests used to evaluate candidates
for promotion when no minority candidates ranked at the top of the list
of those who took the test.

That
white male jurists agreed with Sotomayor will be lost on her critics.
But her record is generally seen as being very much in the mainstream
of legal debates about diversity and affirmative action.

The
swift strike at this nominee provides a reminder of how important this
confirmation battle will be to conservatives, who see the fight to
block Obama's first high-court pick as essential to the renewal of
their sagging political fortunes.

But Sotomayor will have plenty of allies.

Even
before the nomination was announced, National Organization for Women
president Kim Gandy announced that NOW would launch a "Confirm Her"
campaign to ensure swift confirmation of the nominee.

"Nominated
to serve as the third woman and first Hispanic on the Supreme Court in
the history of the United States, Judge Sotomayor will serve the nation
with distinction. She brings a lifelong commitment to equality, justice
and opportunity, as well as the respect of her peers, unassailable
integrity, and a keen intellect informed by experience. President Obama
said he wanted a justice with 'towering intellect' and a 'common touch'
and he found both in Judge Sotomayor," said Gandy. "What more do women
want? We want a swift confirmation in the U.S. Senate, and Associate
Justice Sotomayor to join Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Court before the
Senate's August recess."