Sotomayor up for Supreme Court

As widely predicted, Barack Obama has nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court Justice. Sotomayor, whom the President described as an "inspiring woman", will become the first ever Hispanic to sit on the Supreme Court when she replaces David Souter.

A liberal known for her distrust of big corporations, Sotomayor's appointment is likely to provoke opposition among Conservatives. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, has promised to "thoroughly examine her record to ensure she understands that the role of a jurist in our democracy is to apply the law even-handedly, despite their own feelings or personal or political preferences".

He may well point to her recent ruling, which declared that the city of New Haven should be allowed to ignore the results of a promotion exam for firefighters, because too few ethnic minority candidates scored highly. But with the Democrats holding the Senate majority, Sotomayor is almost certain to receive the approval she requires.

Born to Puerto Rican parents, Sotomayor grew up in a housing project in the Bronx, a stone's throw from the Yankee Stadium. After being diagnosed with diabetes, her ambition became apparent at an early age. "I was going to college and I was going to become an attorney, and I knew that when I was 10," she once told the Daily News. "Ten. That's no jest."

In her two most famous cases, she ruled in favour of the players to end the Major League Baseball strike of 1995, and allowed the Wall Street Journal to publish the suicide note of Hillary Clinton's friend and former law partner, Vince Foster.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
John Cook, Gawker: The truly puzzling thing about this choice is that Sotomayor is 54 years old and has diabetes. She is, frankly, a poor risk when it comes to longevity. Diabetes reduces lifespan, especially in older patients. Chief Justice John Roberts was 50 when Bush nominated him. Obama should have learned a lesson from that.

Jeffrey Rosen, New Republic: The most consistent concern [voiced by people who have worked with her] was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was "not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench," as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge put it. "She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren't penetrating and don't get to the heart of the issue." Her opinions, although competent, are viewed by former prosecutors as not especially clean or tight, and sometimes miss the forest for the trees.