Obama Nominates Sonia Sotomayor to Supreme Court

This morning Obama has nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to fill Souter's position in the Supreme Court. She's one of three widely reported front-runners and would be the first hispanic american appointed.

She'll be 55 next month. She'd be the second youngest Justice on the court, about 7 months older than John Roberts. Assuming she starts in October, she would be the 62nd youngest justice to start on the court. Of current sitting Justices, Scalia, Roberts, Souter and Kennedy were all appointed at 50 or 51 and Thomas was 43.

Obama said today about his approach to picking a justice: "First and foremost is a rigorous intellect, a mastery of the law, an ability to hone in on the key issues and provide clear answers to complex legal questions. Second, is a recognition of the limits of the judicial role. An understanding that a judges job is to interpret, not make law. To approach decisions without any particular ideology or agenda, but rather a commitment to impartial justice, a respect for precedent, and a determination to faithfully apply the law to the facts at hand. Now these two qualities are essential I believe for anyone who would sit on our nation's highest court and yet these qualities alone are insufficient. We need something more. For a supreme court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said "The life of the law has not been logic it has been experience." Experience being tested by obstacles and barriers, by hardship and misfortune. Experience insisting, persisting and ultimately overcoming those barriers. It is experience that can give a person a common touch and a sense of compassion. An understanding of how the world works and how ordinary people live. And that is why it is a necessary ingredient in the kind of justice we need on the Supreme Court."

She "has worked at almost every level of our judicial system"; was nominated to federal court by a Republican (Bush Sr.) and promoted to the federal court of appeals by a Democrat (Clinton). "Walking in the door she would bring more experience sitting on the bench and more varied experience sitting on the bench, then anyone currently serving on the United States Supreme Court when they were appointed." She's Replacing Souter as only justice with experience as a trial judge. She saved baseball by ending the strike of 1994.