U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Sotomayor, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, was born in the Bronx, New York. She earned her B.A. from Princeton University in 1976, graduating summa cum laude and receiving the university’s highest honor. In 1979, she received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. She served as an assistant district attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s office from 1979-84. She then litigated international commercial cases for a firm in New York City from 1984-92.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated her to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, where she served from 1992-98. She was appointed by President Bill Clinton to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, where she served from 1998-2009. President Barack Obama nominated her to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court on May 26, 2009, and she joined the court on August 8, 2009.