President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor today for the United States Supreme Court seat that will be vacated when Justice David Souter retires. If confirmed, Sotomayor will be the first Hispanic, and the third woman to serve on the nation’s high court.
Sotomayor was first appointed to the federal bench in 1991 by George H.W. Bush. In 1997, Bill Clinton appointed her to the Second Circuit court of appeals. In 1998, the Senate voted 67-29 to confirm her.
In her major opinions on the federal bench, Sotomayor is a moderate. She ruled in favor of the state of New York restricting weapons as not violating the 2nd amendment citing the U.S. Supreme Court decision Presser v. Illinois saying that the 2nd amendment applies only to the federal government, and not states. On the other hand, in Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush, she ruled that President Bush was acting in accordance with the law when he withheld federal money from foreign clinics that mentioned abortion as an option.
Her moderate and varied stances should make her confirmation relatively easy. In 2005, Senate Democrats suggested her to President Bush as a replacement for Sandra Day O’Connor. Six Republicans who are still in the Senate voted for her confirmation to the 2nd circuit, including then-Chairman of the Judiciary Comittee Orrin Hatch. Obama went with the safe pick on her, and barring any major unforeseen circumstances, she will be sworn in as the next Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.