The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Today, President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace the retiring Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sotomayor is currently a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where she has served since 1998. Prior to her federal judgeship, Sotomayor was a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and an assistant district attorney in Manhattan.

With experience as a prosecutor, litigator, and trial and appellate judge, Sotomayor brings more federal and overall judicial experience to the Court than any justice in the past several decades.

"Besides her superb intellectual ability and a distinguished three-decade judicial career, she brings a quality of common sense understanding of how laws affect the realities of people's daily lives," said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of LCCR. "Judge Sotomayor is also the first Latino to be nominated to the high court.  She is a first generation American and grew up in the South Bronx – fulfilling another of President Obama's promises to add diversity of background to the Supreme Court." 

Sotomayor is expected to be confirmed by the Senate in time for the next term of the Court in October.