Justice Sotomayor

Justice Sotomayor

I just wanted to type that today. A bit of a reminder of the difference a year or two can make.

Did you imagine we'd see this day, so soon? The day a black President shook hands with a Hispanic Justice? Sometimes, you can actually see progress happening, and the photos from yesterday are one of those moments. There's still a long way to go, with rumors of Justice Stevens' retirement proliferating, and the health of Justice Ginsburg always a question. These are the reasons that the Supreme Court has been a voting issue for me since 2000. These are the reasons it is so critical the Senate approve President Obama's judges as swiftly as is reasonable.

But for today, America's highest court became a little bit more like the nation it servers. And we are all better for that.

Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, was born in Bronx, New York, on June 25, 1954. She earned a B.A. in 1976 from Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude and receiving the university’s highest academic honor. In 1979, she earned a J.D. from Yale Law School where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. She served as Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office from 1979-1984. She then litigated international commercial matters in New York City at Pavia & Harcourt, where she served as an associate and then partner from 1984-1992. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated her to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, and she served in that role from 1992-1998. She served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1998-2009. President Barack Obama nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 26, 2009, and she assumed this role on August 8, 2009. - Official Court Biography

(With a tip-o-the-hat to MyDD.)