NPR has confirmed that President Obama will nominate Sonia Sotomayor, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. If confirmed, she will be the first Hispanic justice on the court as well as the third woman, following Sandra Day O'Connor (1981-2006) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1993-present).
The announcement will come at 10:15 a.m. ET in the East Room at the White House.
She was originally named to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1992 by the first President Bush. President Clinton named her to the appeals court in 1998.
This will be the first Supreme Court nomination by a Democratic president in 15 years, when Clinton chose Stephen Breyer in 1994.
Ideologically, the nomination should not alter the makeup of the court, as Souter, though appointed by the first President Bush, is a fairly reliably liberal vote.
categories: Approaching the Bench
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