President Obama plans to nominate Federal Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court to replace the seat being vacated by David Souter.  If confirmed, Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic Justice in history and third female, after Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to serve on the high court.  The President made his decision on the nominee over the Memorial Day weekend and is expected to announce it in a press conference at 10:15AM today.

Sotomayor grew up in a housing project in the South Bronx, near Yankee Stadium, the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants. She attended Princeton University and Yale Law School, where she was editor of the Yale Law Review,  before becoming an Assistant District Attorney under Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau.  After a stint in private practice she was nominated to the Federal bench by George H.W. Bush and served in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.  Judge Sotomayor currently serves on the bench of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, also in Manhattan.Politically, Sotomayor has been rated as a moderate and centrist by the American Bar Association.    She was also considered in the past as a Supreme Court nominee by George W. Bush.  The pick, on face value, is a smart choice for President Obama that would add diversity to the court while putting up a nominee who, theoretically, could have bipartisan appeal in the United States Senate during the confirmation process.  However given the current climate in the Senate GOP caucus and the repeated threats to filibuster, virtually any nominee might be subjected to a grueling confirmation process, regardless of how moderate they are, simply for being the choice of  President Obama.

LINKS:

CNN: Who is Sonia Sotomayor?

AP: Obama picks Sotomayor for high court

LA Times: Obama to nominate Sonia Sotomayor to Supreme Court