Here’s a look at the life of Sonia Sotomayor, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Personal:
Birth date: June 25, 1954
Birth place: New York, New York
Birth name: Sonia Maria Sotomayor
Father: Juan Sotomayor, a factory worker
Mother: Celina (Baez) Sotomayor, a retired nurse
Marriage: Kevin Edward Noonan (August 1976-October 1983, divorced)
Education: Princeton University, A.B., 1976 – graduated summa cum laude; Yale University, J.D., 1979
Religion: Roman Catholic
Other Facts:
First Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court justice.
Third female justice in U.S. Supreme Court history.
First Hispanic person to be appointed to the federal bench in New York.
Sotomayor’s parents moved from Puerto Rico to New York in the 1940s. Her father died when she was nine.
Editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Diagnosed with diabetes at the age of eight.
Timeline:
1979-1984 – Serves as assistant district attorney for New York County.
1984-1992 – Associate and later partner of Pavia & Harcourt in New York City.
1992-1998 – Associate judge at the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, nominated by President George H.W. Bush.
April 1995 – Sotomayor issues an injunction which ends the eight-month long Major League Baseball strike.
June 25, 1997 – President Bill Clinton nominates Sotomayor to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
October 2, 1998 – Sotomayor is confirmed by the Senate after Republican opposition delays the vote for more than a year.
1998-August 2009 – Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit.
1998-2007 – Adjunct professor at New York University School of Law.
1999-2009 – Lectures at Columbia University Law School.
May 26, 2009 – Is nominated by President Barack Obama to replace Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court.
July 13, 2009 – Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee begin.
July 28, 2009 – The Senate Judiciary Committee approves the nomination of Sotomayor.
August 6, 2009 – Sotomayor is confirmed by the U.S. Senate (68-31). She becomes the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.
August 8, 2009 – Sotomayor is sworn in as the 111th Justice of the Supreme Court by Chief Justice John Roberts.
September 26, 2009 – Throws out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium.
April 27, 2010 – World Series Champions New York Yankees take their trophy to her chambers.
June 4, 2010 – The Bronxdale Houses public housing project she grew up in is renamed the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Houses and Community Center.
July 12, 2010 – Commits to write and publish her memoir with Alfred A. Knopf. It is later revealed that Sotomayor received a $1.175 million advance, according to financial disclosure forms released in 2011.
January 15, 2013 – Sotomayor releases her memoir “My Beloved World,” which discusses her father’s alcoholism, her struggle with diabetes and her divorce.
