Sotomayor: The First Hispanic Pick for the Supreme Court

U.S. President Barack Obama announced Sonia Sotomayor as his Supreme Court pick, making her the first Hispanic nominated to the country’s highest court. Her nomination marks a historic moment in that regard and the White House stressed her three decades of experience as a lawyer in building the case for the choice. “Walking in the door she would bring more experience on the bench, and more varied experience on the bench, than anyone currently serving on the United States Supreme Court had when they were appointed,” said Obama during the announcement. 

Former President George H.W. Bush first appointed Sotomayor to a New York federal court in 1991 while his successor Bill Clinton chose her for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1997. When Supreme Court Justice David Souter gave word that he intended to step down, Sotomayor was widely short listed as the Obama administration pick. Last year, Esquire magazine predicted the nomination of the South Bronx native of Puerto Rican descent in their list of the most influential people of the twenty-first century: “As a Hispanic woman with 16 years of court experience, Sotomayor would slay two of the court's lack-of-diversity birds with one swift stone.” (Sotomayor would be the third woman to serve on the court.) She also earned accolades from Hispanic Business, which has listed her in their top 100 influential Hispanics survey.

Sotomayor is expected to be a shoe-in when it comes to making it through the confirmation hearing process to take the bench with the Democrat-controlled Senate's approval. As Jason Linkins blogs for Huffington Post, the outcome of the summer-long confirmation battle “is already basically predetermined, barring the last minute disclosure of a videotape of Sotomayor setting kittens on fire.”

Her nomination will help Obama bolster his support base among Hispanic voters, writes Chris Cillizza in The Washington Post blog The Fix. The GOP has watched Latino voters slip between its fingers; former President George W. Bush won 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004 but Obama pulled in 67 percent in November. A Pew Hispanic Center survey covers the rapid growth of the Latino voting bloc. With the number of Hispanic voters turning away—even as their ranks grow—from the GOP, opposing Sotomayor’s nomination could be risky for Republicans. “Hispanic voters are an audience where Republicans have had what many in the party already consider their most troublesome slide in recent years,” blogs Gerald F. Seib in The Wall Street Journal’s Capital Journal. “At the end of the day, will Republican senators want to risk making that trend line worse by voting in opposition?”

This does not mean that the Sotomayor pick remains without controversy. The text of a speech she delivered in 2001 at the University of California, Berkeley, raised hackles after a quote was drawn from it: “I would hope wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.” The full text of her remarks show Sotomayor was referring to race and sex discrimination court cases. She went on to say: “I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions, and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires.”

SCOTUS blog takes a look at the lines of attack that could be taken against Obama's Supreme Court pick—as well as arguments against them.

Learn more about AS/COA's Hispanic Integration Initiative.