Sonia Sotomayor
Supreme Court Nominee Profile
Judge Sonia Sotomayor has had a distinguished career as a prosecutor, corporate litigator, federal trial court judge, and member of the US Court Appeals for the 2nd Circuit for 11 years. She is known for carefully and thoroughly researched decisions that follow established precedent wherever possible. She has received bipartisan accolades for her commitment to individual rights and freedoms and her modest, thoughtful, and thorough approach to the judicial role in interpreting existing law.
Nomination Status
Press Releases
Nominee Record
Organizations Supporting This Nominee
Nomination Status
Judge Sotomayor was nominated to the US Supreme Court by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009. Her confirmation hearings began on July 13 in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Committee supported her confirmation with a bipartisan vote of 13-6 on July 28, 2009. The Senate confirmed Judge Sotomayor with a vote of 68-31 on August 6, 2009.
August 6, 2009
NCJW Applauds Confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to US Supreme Court
July 28, 2009
NCJW Welcomes Judiciary Committee Vote Endorsing Judge Sotomayor
July 20, 2009
NCJW Urges Confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor
May 26, 2009
NCJW Welcomes Nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor
Nominee Record
Judge Sotomayor was born in the Bronx, NY, in 1954, and raised there in modest circumstances. After attending parochial school, she graduated summa cum laude with a BA from Princeton in 1976 and received a Juris Doctorate in 1979 from Yale University, where she served on the law journal.
Judge Sotomayor served as a New York City assistant district attorney from 1979 to 1984. From 1988 to 1992 she was a partner in Pavin & Harcourt, where she focused on intellectual property issues. She was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to be a federal district court judge for the Southern District of New York in 1992, and in 1998, President Clinton appointed her to the US Court Appeals for the 2nd Circuit where she continues to serve. She is currently a lecturer at Columbia University Law School and was an adjunct professor at New York University Law School until 2007.
Judge Sotomayor has an extensive record of opinions and decisions from her time on the bench. Many of these decisions reveal a pattern of upholding core constitutional principles like the right to privacy and religious liberty, and a commitment to civil rights and liberties. They range from her ruling in favor of the players union to end the 1995 major league baseball strike to a dissent that would have upheld the right of a police officer to the expression of "patently offensive, hateful and insulting speech." She wrote that the court ought not "gloss over three decades of jurisprudence and the centrality of First Amendment freedoms in our lives because it is confronted with speech it does not like." Judge Sotomayor also dissented when the appeals court allowed a strip search of girls held at juvenile detention centers in Connecticut, writing that the majority had not been attentive enough to "the privacy interests of emotionally troubled children."
In 2008, Judge Sotomayor voted to uphold the hiring practices of the city of New Haven in Ricci v. DeStefano, where the city decided against using the results of a promotion exam when no black firefighters qualified. This case was appealed and heard by the Supreme Court during the immediate past term. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to overturn the 2nd circuit decision. NCJW filed as a friend of the court on behalf of the city of New Haven, believing the 2nd circuit opinion to be correct, and was deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court ruling.
Judge Sotomayor also recently sat on the rehearing of the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who claims that American officials sent him to Syria in 2002 to be tortured. The decision to be issued by the 2nd circuit may be an indicator of Judge Sotomayor’s views on government tactics used against alleged terrorists.
Organizations Supporting This Nominee
A. Philip Randolph Institute
ACORN
ADA Watch
Advancement Project
Alliance For Retired Americans
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
American Association for Affirmative Action
American Association of People with Disabilities
American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO
American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
American Federation of Teachers
Americans for Democratic Action, Inc.
Asian American Justice Center
Campaign for America's Future
Center for Inquiry
Center for Responsible Lending
Communications Workers of America
DC Vote
Demos
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
Hispanic Federation
Human Rights Campaign
Immigration Equality
International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America, UAW
Japanese American Citizens League
Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Laborers’ International Union of North America
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
League of United Latin American Citizens
Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center
Legal Momentum
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
NAACP
National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
National Association of Consumer Advocates
National Association of Human Rights Workers
National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO)
National Black Chamber of Commerce
National Black Justice Coalition
National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR)
National Community Reinvestment Coalition
National Congress of American Indians
National Congress of Black Women, Inc.
National Disability Rights Network
National Education Association
National Employment Law Project
National Employment Lawyers Association
National Fair Housing Alliance
National Hispana Leadership Institute
National Jewish Democratic Council
National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC)
National Organization for Women
National Minority AIDS Council
National Urban League
National Women's Law Center
NCLR (National Council of La Raza)
Open Society Policy Center
People For the American Way
Pride at Work, AFL-CIO
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)
United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
USAction
U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Women Employed