Getting To Know Judge Sonia Sotomayor

There’s been some speculation as to whether or not President-elect Barack Obama will appoint Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court - a move which would make Sotomayor the first Latino to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. Many media outlets have described her as a “shoe-in” for the position as she is apparently on Obama’s short list for Supreme Court Justices.

So, wait. You mean there are famous Nuyorican women who aren’t Jennifer Lopez? Que locura.

Help make way for better role models by getting to know Judge Sotomayor, after the jump:

Sotomayor, who is of Puerto Rican descent, was raised in a housing project in a working class South Bronx neighborhood. She graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1976 and went on to attend law school at Yale. And what have you done lately?

President George Bush, Sr. nominated her to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1991. In 1997, President Bill Clinton nominated her to her current position on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. She is described as being a very liberal, adamantly pro-choice judge and as a “realist.”

One particularly fawning article in Esquire described Sotomayor thusly:

In her rulings, Sotomayor has often shown suspicion of bloated government and corporate power. She’s offered a reinterpretation of copyright law, ruled in favor of public access to private information, and in her most famous decision, sided with labor in the Major League Baseball strike of 1995. More than anything else, she is seen as a realist. With a likely 20 years ahead on the bench, she’ll have plenty of time to impart her realist philosophy.

Basically, she is made of magic and love. Keep an eye on her, Guanababies.

Sonia Sotomayor: Obama’s First Supreme Court Appointment? [Right Pundits]
Potential Justices: Sonia Sotomayor [National Journal]
Sonia Sotomayor [Esquire]