Breaking In: The Rise of Sonia Sotomayor Read online

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  Sonia Sotomayor strides into the East Room of the White House with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on May 26, 2009, for the president’s announcement of her nomination to the Supreme Court. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

  Emphasizing her point, Sotomayor speaks to President Obama on the day of her nomination to succeed the retiring justice David Souter; Vice President Biden looks on. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

  In late June 2009, during preparation for Sotomayor’s July confirmation hearings, White House staff celebrated her birthday with her. Sotomayor laughs with Deputy White House Counsel Cassandra Butts (left). Behind Sotomayor is Cynthia Hogan (far right), counsel to Vice President Biden. Butts and Hogan took the lead on much of the preparation. (Official White House Photo by Johnny Simon)

  Sotomayor’s nomination set up ethnic and racial tensions that were captured by political cartoonists. Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans were featured in this spoof on West Side Story’s “Jet Song,” by the cartoonist R. J. Matson in The New York Observer. (Courtesy of Cagle Cartoons)

  Nate Beeler’s cartoon in the Washington Examiner conjures up criticism by Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich against Sotomayor, particularly for her “wise Latina” remark, suggesting their commentary may have been unwelcomed by other Republicans looking ahead to elections. (Courtesy of Cagle Cartoons)

  Jimmy Margulies, a cartoonist for The Record in New Jersey, plays off Sotomayor’s record of breaking through glass ceilings. (Courtesy of Cagle Cartoons)

  This Taylor Jones caricature of Sotomayor appeared in El Nuevo Día in Puerto Rico. Sotomayor was confirmed by the Senate on August 6, 2009, by a 68–31 vote. Most Republicans voted against her. (Courtesy of Cagle Cartoons)

  At a White House reception on August 12, 2009, after Sotomayor’s Senate confirmation, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama congratulate the new justice. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

  Supreme Court justices welcome Sotomayor during her September 8, 2009, investiture events. President Obama speaks with Justices Sotomayor, Antonin Scalia, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (Steve Petteway, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)

  After an investiture ceremony at the Supreme Court on September 8, 2009, Chief Justice John Roberts escorts Sotomayor, the nation’s 111th justice, across the west plaza toward the assembled news media. (Steve Petteway, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)

  Sotomayor joins her family after the ceremony on the Supreme Court’s plaza: (from left to right) Omar Lopez (stepfather), Celina Sotomayor (mother), Tracey Sotomayor (sister-in-law), and Juan Sotomayor (brother). (Steve Petteway, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)

  After Obama and Biden won a second term, Vice President Biden asked Justice Sotomayor to swear him in on January 20, 2013, his official inauguration taking place one day before the ceremonial one. But Sotomayor had a book signing in Manhattan that afternoon, so she asked him to move the event from the traditional noon to 8:00 a.m. As she rushed out after the ceremony, he thanked her for the honor, saying he hoped he hadn’t caused her to miss her train. (Steve Petteway, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)

  The presidential inauguration was held at the U.S. Capitol on January 21, 2013. Justice Sotomayor greets Biden just before that ceremony. Standing on the platform waiting for the ceremony to begin are Chief Justice Roberts and Associate Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Antonin Scalia. (Steve Petteway, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)

  The current Supreme Court, together in their robes in 2010 (Steve Petteway, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)

  Justice Sotomayor gets ready to press the button for the countdown ball for the celebration of the New Year on January 1, 2014, in Times Square. (Getty Images)

  ALSO BY JOAN BISKUPIC

  American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

  Sandra Day O’Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice

  A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Joan Biskupic has covered the U.S. Supreme Court for more than twenty years and is the author of several books, including American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Sandra Day O’Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice. Biskupic is an editor in charge for legal affairs at Reuters News. Before joining Reuters in 2012, she was the Supreme Court correspondent for The Washington Post and for USA Today. A graduate of Georgetown Law, she is a regular panelist on PBS’s Washington Week with Gwen Ifill. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and daughter.

  Sarah Crichton Books

  Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  18 West 18th Street, New York 10011

  Copyright © 2014 by Joan Biskupic

  All rights reserved

  First edition, 2014

  eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Biskupic, Joan, author.

  Breaking in: the rise of Sonia Sotomayor and the politics of justice / Joan Biskupic.

  pages cm

  Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes.

  ISBN 978-0-374-29874-6 (hardback) — ISBN 978-0-374-71241-9 (ebook)

  1. Sotomayor, Sonia, 1954– 2
. Hispanic American judges—Biography. 3. Judges—United States—Biography. I. Title.

  KF8745.S67 B57 2014

  347.73'2634—dc23

  [B]

  2014016703

  www.fsgbooks.com

  www.twitter.com/fsgbooks • www.facebook.com/fsgbooks

  *The term “Hispanic” refers to people who trace their family’s origins to the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America or to Spain. The author uses the terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” interchangeably, following the practice of the U.S. Census Bureau, the Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project, and other research and academic authorities. Sotomayor has adopted such usage, too, describing herself on various occasions as Hispanic, as Latina, and as a Puerto Rican.