President Obama made history yesterday when he nominated Bronx-born federal appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court.
"What you've shown in your life is that it doesn't matter where you come from, what you look like or what challenges life throws your way," Obama said as Sotomayor, 54, stood at his side in the packed White House East Room.
The president called Sotomayor "an inspiring woman who I believe will make a great justice," and said his nominee had "an understanding of how the world works and how ordinary people live."
Fighting off nervousness, Sotomayor recalled getting a private White House tour 11 years ago.
"It was an overwhelming experience for a kid from the South Bronx," she said. "Yet, never in my wildest childhood imaginings did I ever envision that moment, let alone did I ever dream that I would live this moment."
Sotomayor is best known for her decision as a trial judge in 1995 to bar Major League Baseball from using replacement players, ending a nearly yearlong strike.
"Some say that Judge Sotomayor saved baseball," Obama said.
The announcement ended a guessing game that began May 1, when Justice David Souter announced he was retiring.
Obama aides said that the White House narrowed the list of possible successors to four people, all women: Sotomayor, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Solicitor General Elena Kagan and federal Judge Diane Wood.
Sotomayor, whose parents came to New York from Puerto Rico during World War II, was interviewed by Obama under high secrecy Thursday night.
She spent seven hours at the White House -- and one hour in the Oval Office with Obama -- without word slipping out. The president, who was said to be greatly impressed during the interview, offered her the post in a phone call at 9 p.m. Monday.
Sotomayor, who would be the third woman to serve on the high court, is expected to quickly begin making the rounds of senators who will be key in her confirmation fight.
Democrats are hoping for a vote before the Senate's August recess.
For the most part, Republicans held their fire yesterday, saying that her record would be thoroughly vetted during the confirmation process, although some charged that she was the most liberal of the four women on the short list. But Obama stressed she had been nominated to her first federal judgeship by a GOPer, President George H.W. Bush.
When President Bill Clinton nominated her to a higher court in 1997, Republicans dragged her confirmation out for a year -- partly out of fear that she was a natural for the high court.
Conservatives admitted yesterday that the solid Democratic Senate majority makes confirmation all but inevitable.
"I doubt that Sotomayor can be stopped. She should be," said radio host Rush Limbaugh, who added, "She is a horrible pick."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said his colleagues will be fair, "but we will thoroughly examine her record to ensure that she understands that the role of a jurist . . . is to apply the law evenhandedly, despite their own feelings or personal or political preferences."
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the Judiciary Committee's top Republican, said he, too, had promised a fair shake.
"I'd like it to be a hearing that people can be proud of," he said.
Obama stressed Sotomayor's up-from-poverty life story -- how, after her father died when she was 9, "her mother worked six days a week as a nurse," how Sotomayor won scholarships to Princeton and Yale, and served as a Manhattan prosecutor under "the legendary Robert Morgenthau" before becoming a judge.
"Along the way, she's faced down barriers, overcome the odds, and lived out the American dream that brought her parents here so long ago," Obama said.
Sotomayor thanked her tearful mother, Celina, who was at the White House -- "I am only half the woman she is" -- and said, "I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences."
Sen. Charles Schumer, who is expected to play a key role in guiding the nomination through the Senate, called Sotomayor's biography "beyond compelling."
"It's a great New York story and a great American story," he said.
Mayor Bloomberg said he had pressed the case for Sotomayor when he met with Obama earlier this month.
"Judge Sotomayor was first recommended to the federal bench by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and, of all his great legacies, she may prove to be one of the most important," Bloomberg said.
Obama aides said Sotomayor had been fully vetted and had no problems that would complicate her confirmation. The White House even interviewed her doctor to verify that the Type 1 diabetes she's had since 8 is under control.
Andy Soltis, NY Post, 5/27/09
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