10/09/2017
Another individual we are highlighting in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month is Sonya Sotomayor, the first Latina Supreme Court Justice in United States history. She was the eldest of two children raised in the Bronx by parents Jan and Celina Baez Sotomayor of Puerto Rican descent. The beginnings of her legal interest was an episode of Perry Mason in which a prosecutor said he didn't mind losing if the defendant turned out to be innocent, and she said she wanted to be like the judge who decided to dismiss the case.
Celina pushed for her children to excel in their studies so they could make it to higher education and sacrificed to aid in their success. This led to Sotomayor's entrance, reception of the Pyne Prize award (the highest academic award given to undergraduates), and summa cm laude graduation from Princeton University, although she admits to struggling in the beginning. She then went on to Yale Law School and immediately started work as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan after receiving her J.D.
While working, Sotomayor did pro bono work 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. Her efforts received notice from Senators Ted Kennedy and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, which led to her nomination for U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York City by President George H. W. Bush in 1992.
On May 26, 2009, President Barak Obama nominated Sotomayor for Supreme Court Justice. As of August 8 of that same year to now, she has had the honorary position and influenced a number of landmark cases such as King v. Burwell and Obergefell v. Hodges.
Also in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Mercyhurst University Office of Multicultural Student Services is having an event!! Feel free to come out and enjoy what they have to offer tomorrow afternoon!!
