Breaking In: The Rise of Sonia Sotomayor (42 page)

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 D
í
a
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)