Sonia Sotomayor was nominated as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009. She was confirmed and has served since August 8, 2009. Justice Sotomayor was nominated to the US District Court, Southern District of New York, by George H.W. Bush in 1991, a position she held until 1998, at which time she was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by President Bill Clinton. She remained at the Second Circuit until 2009.

In private practice, Justice Sotomayor litigated international commercial matters in New York City at Pavia & Harcourt, where she served as an associate and then partner, from 1984-1992. Before that, she served as assistant district attorney in the New York County district attorney’s office from 1979–1984.

Raised in the Bronx, New York, Justice Sotomayor received her JD in 1979 from Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal, and a BA in 1976 from Princeton University, where she graduated with highest academic honors.