Sonia Sotomayor: podcast appearances and interviews

Sonia Maria Sotomayor is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. Born on June 25, 1954, in the Bronx, New York City, she is the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Her parents were Puerto Rican-born, and after her father died when she was nine years old, she was raised by her mother. Sotomayor graduated with high honors from Princeton University in 1976 and obtained her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1979, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. She worked as an assistant district attorney in New York for over four years before entering private practice in 1984. She served on the boards of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the New York City Campaign Finance Board, and the State of New York Mortgage Agency. In 1991, President George H. W. Bush nominated her to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and she was confirmed in 1992. President Bill Clinton nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1997; her confirmation followed in 1998 after some delays. During her tenure on the Second Circuit, she heard over 3,000 cases and authored approximately 380 opinions. She has also taught at New York University School of Law and Columbia Law School. In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, and she was confirmed by the Senate. On the Court, she is known for supporting the liberal bloc in ideological divisions, her focus on criminal justice reform, and her outspoken dissents on race and ethnic identity issues.