Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Sotomayor was born on June 25, 1954, the child of Puerto Rican immigrants, and grew up in a disadvantaged neighborhood in the Bronx, New York. Her father died when she was nine, and her mother, a nurse, worked diligently to raise Sotomayor and her brother. Diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, Sotomayor faced additional challenges during her upbringing. Despite these circumstances, she excelled academically, graduating summa cum laude from Princeton University before attending Yale Law School, where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Review. After earning her law degree, she began her career in 1979 as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, gaining experience before entering private practice in 1984, where she became a partner within four years. In October 1992, President George H. W. Bush appointed her as a judge to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. President Bill Clinton later appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1998. On May 26, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court of the United States to fill the vacancy left by Justice David Souter. Following confirmation hearings in mid-July, she was confirmed by the Senate on August 6, 2009. Sotomayor made history when she was sworn in on August 8, 2009, becoming the first Latina to take the oath of office as a Supreme Court Justice.