Citing her “rigorous intellect” and her “commitment to impartial justice,” President Obama yesterday nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a federal appeals judge from New York, to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court. Legal scholars argue that her record suggests similarities wither the man she is replacing. Thomas Goldstein, a Washington-based Supreme Court lawyer, said that both Sotomayor and Souter “seem to fit smack dab in the center-left.” Born into the Bronxdale housing projects in New York City, Sotomayor is now poised to become the first Latina to sit on the Supreme Court. Moreover, Judge Sotomayor brings more federal judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any Justice in the last century. A top graduate of Princeton and Yale Law School, Sotomayor would join the Court as the only member who has previously served as a trial judge. “This wealth of experiences, personal and professional, have helped me appreciate the variety of perspectives that present themselves in every case that I hear,” Sotomayor said yesterday. “It has helped me to understand, respect, and respond to the concerns and arguments of all litigants who appear before me, as well as to the views of my colleagues on the bench.”

From: thinkprogress.org