Sonia Sotomayor, President Barack Obama's choice to replace Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court, is eminently qualified - and only in part because of her background and inspiring life story.
Rising from the "projects" in the Bronx, she graduated summa cum laude from Princeton and graduated from Yale Law School as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. At age 54, Judge Sotomayor has 17 years of federal judicial experience; she currently serves on the 2nd Court of Appeals based in New York.
Any judge who has authored 400 opinions has published something to displease everyone. As the nominee of a Democratic president, Judge Sotomayor's opinions are more liberal than conservative. However, and most important, when you read her opinions, they are truly in the "mainstream" of judicial thought. Her confirmation should be pretty smooth - but given recent history of the Supreme Court confirmation process, that is not a given.
After an 11-year stretch of no new Supreme Court justices, we will now have three in four years. In the intervening time it has only gotten more difficult to successfully seat a justice; even a relatively noncontroversial nominee like Chief Justice John G. Roberts garnered only 50 percent approval by the Democrats in the Senate. (At that time, in 2005, they were the opposition party.)
While the nomination process shows no sign of becoming easier for anyone - especially the public - the makeup of the Supreme Court is in transition, as Judge Sotomayor's nomination clearly demonstrates.
I expect that Judge Sotomayor will be a "Justice Roberts" during the confirmation process - brilliant, courteous, charming, easy to like, difficult to "put down." She will likely be confirmed about 80 to 20, with 100 percent of the Democrats and about half the Republicans voting to confirm.
Her confirmation should take place before the court's new term in October. She should be on the same pace as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who, in 1993, was nominated on June 14 and confirmed on Aug. 3, and Justice Stephen Breyer, who, in 1994, was nominated on May 13 and confirmed on July 29.
Over the last 220 years, and particularly in the last quarter-century, the composition of the Supreme Court has changed, just as there has been a shift among those in power, among those whom society accords respect, and among those with opportunity and access. Eighty-nine of the 110 justices have been white, male Protestants. Considering this country's historic prejudice, these numbers are not surprising. Of the 21 "other" justices, 12 were Catholic, seven were Jewish, two were African-American, and two were female. In fact, seven of those 21 justices sit on the court today.
