By AP
WASHINGTON (AP) – WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama has chosen federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor for the opening on the Supreme Court.
If confirmed by the Senate, Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic to serve on the nation's highest court. She would succeed Justice David Souter, who is retiring.
Sotomayor grew up in a Bronx housing project after her parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico.
She is a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School. She was a prosecutor and private attorney before former President George H.W. Bush appointed her a federal judge for the Southern District of New York in 1992. Former President Bill Clinton made her an appeals judge in 1997.
In one of her most memorable rulings as federal district judge, Sotomayor essentially salvaged baseball in 1995, when she ruled with players over owners in a strike that had led to the cancellation of the World Series.