NCBCP Headlines
Sotomayor nominated to Supreme Court
Staff Reports
Florida Courier
May 29, 2009
President Barack Obama hopes to put his lasting imprint on the Supreme Court with his choice of Sonia Sotomayor, but she ultimately may be remembered as much for who she is as for what she does.
While her liberal record on the appeals bench will generate a summer-long clash of ideologies in Washington and a highdecibel battle on cable TV and talk radio, her ideology isn't likely to shift the court much, if at all. If the Democratic-controlled Senate confirms her, as it's widely expected to, she'll replace retiring Justice David Souter, a moderate vote.
Her identity would have a more immediate impact. Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic to serve on the court, a working-class kid from the Bronx whose widowed mother - who choked up watching the president nominate her daughter Tuesday at the White House - toiled to send Sotomayor to inner-city Roman Catholic schools.
'Common touch'
Obama said that her identity and life story gave Sotomayor, a Princeton and Yale Law School graduate, the empathy atop her intellect and judicial experience that made her his top choice.
