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Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Maria Sotomayor (born June 25, 1954) was the first Latinx, first woman of color, and only the third woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court. She was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, and after being confirmed in the Senate by a vote of 68-31, was sworn in on August 8, 2009. Until 1967, the membership of the court had been all white and male, and until 1981 the court had been all male. Prior to Sotomayor, only two non-white justices, Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas (both African Americans), had served, and only two women: Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (both white).

Sotomayor was born in the Bronx to parents who migrated from Puerto Rico. Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1976 and received her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1979, where she was also an editor at the Yale Law Journal. In 1992, Sotomayor joined the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and in 1998 she joined the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. During this time, Sotomayor also taught at NYU and Columbia Law Schools. 

In 1998, Sotomayor moved to 3 Bedford Street. Even after being appointed to the Supreme Court, she has maintained her apartment here. 

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