President Obama announced the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court this morning. If confirmed, Sotomayor would be the third woman and the first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court. Other candidates that were rumored to be under consideration included Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, US Appeals Court Judge Diane Pamela Wood, and California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno.
Sotomayor was appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of New York by former President George H.W. Bush and was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by former President Bill Clinton. She graduated from Princeton and attended law school at Yale, where she was editor of the law review.
It had been widely speculated that President Obama would choose a woman nominee for the seat. Women’s rights activists also advocated for a woman nominee. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is currently the only woman seated on the Court. Former justice Sandra Day O’Connor retired in 2005.
