Judge Sonia Sotomayor is Obama's pick

By April MacIntyre May 26, 2009, 12:42 GMT

CNN is reporting that President Barack Obama will nominate federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court. She would be replacing retiring Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court. EPA/JOSHUA ROBERTS

CNN is reporting that President Barack Obama will nominate federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court. She would be replacing retiring Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, if nominated, would make the sixth Catholic on the Court, with two justices of Jewish descent and one Protestant, according to lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who was interviewed by CNN this morning.  Her politics are described as "centrist-left" by both Dershowirtz and CNN legal analyst and attorney Jeffrey Toobin.

She was first nominated to the bench by President George H.W. Bush.

If confirmed by the Senate, Judge Sotomayor, 54, would replace Justice Souter to become the second woman on the court and only the third female justice in the history of the Supreme Court. 

The New York Times reports that Judge Sotomayor famously issued an injunction against major league baseball owners in April 1995, ending a baseball strike of nearly eight months, the longest in professional sports history, which had led to the cancellation of the World Series.

According to the Times, she was born in the Bronx on June 23, 1954. Sotomayor was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 8. Her father died when she was nine, and her mother, a nurse, raised her and a brother "on a modest salary."

Sotomayor is a Nancy Drew and Yankees fan, according to CNN.

The nomination makes her the first Hispanic in history picked to be a Supreme Court justice.  CNN reported that administration officials say Sotomayor would bring more judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any justice confirmed in the past 70 years.

A formal announcement was expected at midmorning.