Breaking News: Obama Names First Latina U.S. Supreme Court Justice!

President Obama has named Federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor (54) to be his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. If confirmed, Sotomayor will be the first Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court Justice in U.S. history.

Sotomayor is a brilliant and highly qualified nominee. She is a judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She is considered a political centrist by the American Bar Association Journal and others. Sotomayor was nominated on November 27, 1991, by President George H. W. Bush to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. On June 25, 1997, she was nominated by former President Bill Clinton to the seat she now holds.

Sotomayor was born in The Bronx, New York, to Puerto Rican parents. She grew up in a housing project in the South Bronx, a short walk from Yankee Stadium. She was diagnosed with diabetes at age 8. Her father, a tool-and-die worker with a third-grade education, died the following year. Her mother, a nurse, raised Sotomayor and her younger brother, who is now a doctor.

Sotomayor graduated from Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx. She earned her A.B. from Princeton University, summa cum laude, in 1976, where she won the Pyne Prize, the highest general award given to Princeton undergraduates. Sotomayor obtained her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1979, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. Sotomayor then served as an Assistant District Attorney under prominent New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, prosecuting robberies, assaults, murders, police brutality, and child pornography cases. In 1984, she entered private practice, making partner at the commercial litigation firm of Pavia & Harcourt, where she specialized in intellectual property litigation. Robyn Kar, who clerked for Sotomayor from 1998 to 1999, described her as a "warm, extraordinarily kind and caring person."
In 1998, for her current seat, the New York judge won the support of 25 Republicans, including eight senators who still serve. If Sotomayor is able to maintain the support of just a few of those GOP senators this year, Senate Republicans would face an almost impossible task in defeating her nomination, even by filibuster, which requires 40 votes. Currently, Republicans hold 39 senate seats. The president has said he hopes hearings will be held in July, with the confirmation completed before Congress leaves for the summer.

In the meantime, right wing extremist pundits have already started their attack against this brilliant, summa cum laude, highly qualified judge. Both Jeffrey Rosen and Mark Krikorian have called her dumb and obnoxious, admittedly without studying any of her rulings and instead relying on their own biased opinions and so-called anonymous sources. They both racistly added that the ONLY reason she is being named is because she is a Hispanic Woman. Their remarks are so typical of good ole boys. They find it hard to believe that any woman or any minority can be brilliant and qualified and should be candidates for high nominations. Rosen and Krikorian prove what racist cavemen they truly are!