HR0510 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0510 LRB096 13222 GRL 27881 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are pleased to congratulate United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor on the occasion of being nominated to serve as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court by President Barack Obama; and

WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor was born to a Puerto Rican family and grew up in a public housing project in New York City's South Bronx area; her father, a factory worker with a third-grade education, died when she was nine years old; her mother, a nurse, then raised her and her younger brother, Juan; after her father's death, she turned to books for solace, with her new found love of Nancy Drew inspiring her to love reading and learning, which ultimately led her to the law; and

WHEREAS, Driven by an incredible work ethic, and rising to the challenge of managing a diagnosis of juvenile diabetes, Sonia Sotomayor excelled in school; she graduated as valedictorian of her class at Blessed Sacrament and at Cardinal Spellman High School in New York; inspired by her high school debate coach, Ken Moy, who attended Princeton University, she soon followed in his footsteps after winning a scholarship and attended Princeton herself; at Princeton, she continued to excel, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa; she was a co-recipient of the M. Taylor Pyne Prize, the highest honor Princeton awards to an undergraduate; she then attended Yale Law School, where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal and as managing editor of the Yale Studies in World Public Order; and

WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor has worked at almost every level of the federal judicial system, lending her depth of experience and many perspectives to the courts; after graduating from Yale Law School, she became an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan in 1979, where she tried dozens of criminal cases over five years; she was appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of New York by President George H.W. Bush in October of 1992; from 1992 to 1998, she presided over roughly 450 cases; she was then promoted to serve as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by President Bill Clinton in October of 1998, becoming the first Latina to serve on that court; as a Second Circuit judge, she has participated in over 3,000 panel decisions and has authored roughly 400 published opinions; and

WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor entered private practice in 1984, becoming a partner in 1988 at the firm Pavia and Harcourt; as a private attorney, she worked as a general civil litigator involved in all facets of commercial work, including real estate, employment, banking, contracts, and agency law; her practice also had a significant concentration in intellectual property law, including trademark, copyright, and unfair competition issues; and

WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor has also served as a lecturer at Columbia University Law School and as an adjunct professor at New York University Law School until 2007; and

WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor has served as a member of the Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts; she was a former member of the Boards of Directors of the New York Mortgage Agency, the New York City Campaign Finance Board, and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund; and

WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor is widely admired as a judge with a sophisticated grasp of legal doctrine and a keen awareness of the law's impact on everyday life, traits that will make her an invaluable asset to the United States Supreme Court; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate Judge Sonia Sotomayor on the occasion of her nomination and wish her continued success in the future; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Judge Sonia Sotomayor as a symbol of our esteem and respect.