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President Barack Obama, in an anticipated announcement yesterday, named Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as his Supreme Court nominee. If confirmed by the Senate, Sotomayor, in replacing retiring Justice David Souter, would become the first Latino and third woman in history to serve on the High Court. In praising his choice, Obama said at a press conference that “when Sonia Sotomayor ascends those marble steps to assume her seat on the highest court in the land, America will have taken another important step toward realizing the ideal that is etched about its entrance: Equal justice under the law.” Born to Puerto Rican parents, Sotomayor was raised in a housing project in the Bronx in New York before graduating from Princeton. From there, she attended Yale Law School before being nominated by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 to serve as a federal judge. In 1998, she was nominated by President Bill Clinton to serve on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. In replacing Justice Souter, Sotomayor is not expected to significantly shift the political balance of the court.

GUEST: Majorie Cohn, President of the National Lawyers Guild and Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law