Obama Nominates Sotomayor

Earlier today President Barack Obama announced that he will nominated federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United Supreme Court. Obama described Sotomayor as “an inspiring woman” with “a rigorous intellect” and “a mastery of the law.” If the Senate Judiciary Committee confirms Sotomayor, then she will be the first (1st) Hispanic on the high court, and the third (3rd) woman overall.

Sotomayor received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University and her law degree from Yale Law School, where she was editor of the Yale Law Journal. She’s worked in the district attorney’s office in New York and has private practice experience. President George H.W. Bush nominated her in 1991 to the federal district court and President Bill Clinton promoted her to the appeals court in 1997.

I’m not familiar with any of Sotomayor’s rulings; however, I agree with former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who once stated, “the life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience.” Moreover, I agree with President Obama’s belief that it is important that the Supreme Court Justices know “how the [real] world works, and how ordinary people live.” Throughout law school and private practice, I’ve read enough Supreme Court decisions to realize that sometimes this is not always the case.