SONIA SOTOMAYOR
Sonia Sotomayor was born June 25, 1954, in the Bronx, New York. Her desire to be a judge was first inspired by the TV showPerry Mason. She graduated from Yale Law School and passed the bar in 1980. She became a U.S. District Court Judge in 1992 and was elevated to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in 1998. In 2009, she became the first Latina Supreme Court Justice in U.S. history. Federal judge Sonia Sotomayor was born as the eldest of two children in the South Bronx area of New York City, on June 25, 1954. Parents Juan and Celina (Baez) Sotomayor, who were of Puerto Rican descent, moved to New York City to raise the family. Sotomayor's family functioned on a very modest income; her mother was a nurse at a methadone clinic, and her father was a tool-and-die worker who died when Sotomayor was only nine years old. On May 26, 2009, President Barack Obama announced his nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court Justice. The nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in August of 2009 by a vote of 68 to 31. As a result Sotomayor, became the first Latina Supreme Court Justice in U.S. history.