Res. No. 1982-A

Resolution supporting President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court of the United States, congratulating Judge Sotomayor on her nomination, and urging swift Senate confirmation.

By Council Members Mark-Viverito, Arroyo, Jackson, Koppell, Stewart, Eugene, Mendez, Dickens, Reyna, Recchia Jr., Ferreras, James, Liu, Mealy, Seabrook, Weprin, Vacca, Garodnick, Gioia, White Jr., Comrie, Gerson, Brewer, Dilan, Katz and Gonzalez

                     Whereas, Associate Supreme Court Justice David Souter will step down from the Supreme Court in June of 2009, and President Barack Obama announced at a May 1, 2009 White House Press Briefing that he will seek a successor who “understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a casebook; it is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives -- whether they can make a living and care for their families, whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their own nation;” and

Whereas, On May 26, 2009, President Obama nominated Federal Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court to replace Justice Souter; and

Whereas, Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (R-NY) wrote a letter to President Obama recommending Judge Sotomayor; and

Whereas, President Obama stated that Judge Sotomayor would start on the job with more experience on the bench than any of the current nine justices when they began; and

Whereas, Judge Sotomayor graduated from Princeton University summa cum laude in 1976 and received her law degree from Yale Law School, where she was as an editor of the Yale Law Journal and managing editor of the Yale Studies in World Public Order; and

Whereas, Judge Sotomayor began her legal career in 1979 as an Assistant District Attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office under prominent New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and later entered private practice in 1984; and

Whereas, In 1988, while in private practice, Judge Sotomayor was appointed by New York City Mayor Ed Koch as one of the founding members of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, where she served for four years; and

Whereas, President George Herbert Walker Bush appointed Judge Sotomayor in 1991 to the federal district court on the recommendation of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY);  and

Whereas, In 1992, she became the youngest federal judge in the Southern District of New York and the first American of Puerto Rican descent; and

Whereas, Judge Sotomayor was appointed to the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers New York, Connecticut and Vermont, by President Bill Clinton in 1997; and

Whereas, Judge Sotomayor also served as an Adjunct Professor at New York University School of Law from 1998 - 2007 and has been a lecturer-in-law at Columbia Law School since 1999; and

Whereas, Throughout her long and impressive career in public service that began three decades ago, Judge Sotomayor has exemplified the qualities and experiences of President Obama’s ideal candidate - intelligence, respect for the Constitution, and empathy for the powerless - for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; and

Whereas, Judge Sotomayor grew up in the Bronx, living in the Bronxdale Houses, a public housing project in the Soundview section, raised solely by her mother after her father died when she was nine years old, and graduated as valedictorian from Cardinal Spellman High School in 1972; and

Whereas, Judge Sotomayor’s unique background provides her with a deep understanding and sensitivity to the struggles and hardships endured by many Americans, allowing her to adjudicate with empathy and compassion for every resident; and

Whereas, Throughout her accomplished tenure as a federal judge, Judge Sotomayor has ruled not as an ideologue, but as a centrist and has demonstrated that she has the appropriate temperament and consummate knowledge of the Constitution to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States; and

Whereas, President Obama praised her as someone possessing “a rigorous intellect, a mastery of the law,” according to The New York Times; and

Whereas, Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation would bring much needed diversity to the Supreme Court; and

Whereas, The confirmation of Judge Sotomayor, whose parents were born in Puerto Rico, would be historic because she would be the first-ever Hispanic to serve on the Court, and she would become the third woman to serve; and

Whereas, President Obama seeks swift Senate confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotamayor before the Senate’s August recess and in time for the start of the Supreme Court’s fall term in October, and that timeline is achievable by historical standards; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York supports President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court of the United States, congratulates Judge Sotomayor on her nomination, and urges swift Senate confirmation.

TC

5/27/09

3:30 p.m.

LS #7486