Full Text of HR0579 96th General Assembly
HR0579 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | 3 |
| Representatives are pleased to congratulate United States | 4 |
| Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor on the | 5 |
| occasion of being confirmed to serve as an Associate Justice of | 6 |
| the United States Supreme Court; and
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| WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor was born to a Puerto Rican family | 8 |
| and grew up in a public housing project in New York City's | 9 |
| South Bronx area; her father passed away when she was nine | 10 |
| years old; her mother then raised her and her younger brother, | 11 |
| Juan; after her father's death, she turned to books for solace; | 12 |
| her new-found love of reading and learning ultimately led her | 13 |
| to the law; and
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| WHEREAS, Driven by her incredible work ethic, Sonia | 15 |
| Sotomayor excelled in school; she graduated as valedictorian of | 16 |
| her class at Blessed Sacrament and at Cardinal Spellman High | 17 |
| School in New York; inspired by her high school debate coach, | 18 |
| Ken Moy, she won a scholarship and attended Princeton | 19 |
| University; at Princeton, she continued to excel, graduating | 20 |
| summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa; she was a co-recipient of | 21 |
| the M. Taylor Pyne Prize, the highest honor Princeton awards to | 22 |
| an undergraduate; she then attended Yale Law School, where she | 23 |
| served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal and as managing |
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| editor of the Yale Studies in World Public Order; and
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| WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor has had extensive experience at | 3 |
| almost every level of the federal judicial system; after | 4 |
| graduating from Yale Law School, she became an Assistant | 5 |
| District Attorney in Manhattan in 1979, where she tried dozens | 6 |
| of criminal cases over 5 years; in October of 1992, she was | 7 |
| appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of | 8 |
| New York by President George H.W. Bush; from 1992 to 1998, she | 9 |
| presided over roughly 450 cases; in October of 1998, she was | 10 |
| promoted to serve as a judge on the United States Court of | 11 |
| Appeals for the Second Circuit by President Bill Clinton, | 12 |
| becoming the first Latina to serve on that court; as a Second | 13 |
| Circuit judge, she participated in over 3,000 panel decisions | 14 |
| and authored roughly 400 published opinions; and
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| WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor has also had extensive experience | 16 |
| as a private attorney; she entered private practice in 1984, | 17 |
| becoming a partner in 1988 at the firm Pavia and Harcourt; as a | 18 |
| private attorney, she worked as a general civil litigator | 19 |
| involved in all facets of commercial work, including real | 20 |
| estate, employment, banking, contracts, and agency law; and | 21 |
| WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor served as a lecturer at Columbia | 22 |
| University Law School and as an adjunct professor at New York | 23 |
| University Law School until 2007; and
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| WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor has served as a member of the | 2 |
| Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness | 3 |
| in the Courts and is a former member of the Boards of Directors | 4 |
| of the New York Mortgage Agency, the New York City Campaign | 5 |
| Finance Board, and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education | 6 |
| Fund; and
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| WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation to the Supreme | 8 |
| Court is a moment that all Americans, particularly Latino | 9 |
| Americans, can be proud of in the rich history of this nation; | 10 |
| therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 12 |
| NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | 13 |
| congratulate Judge Sonia Sotomayor on the occasion of her | 14 |
| confirmation and wish her great success in her tenure as an | 15 |
| Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court; and be it | 16 |
| further
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| RESOLVED, That we congratulate and thank President Barack | 18 |
| Obama for his wise choice to move America forward by choosing | 19 |
| Sonia Sotomayor as his Supreme Court nominee; and be it further | 20 |
| RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 21 |
| presented to Judge Sonia Sotomayor and President Barack Obama |
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| as a symbol of our esteem and respect.
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