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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     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 nominated to serve as an Associate Justice of
6 the United States Supreme Court by President Barack Obama; and
 
7     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, a factory worker with a
10 third-grade education, died when she was nine years old; her
11 mother, a nurse, then raised her and her younger brother, Juan;
12 after her father's death, she turned to books for solace, with
13 her new found love of Nancy Drew inspiring her to love reading
14 and learning, which ultimately led her to the law; and
 
15     WHEREAS, Driven by an incredible work ethic, and rising to
16 the challenge of managing a diagnosis of juvenile diabetes,
17 Sonia Sotomayor excelled in school; she graduated as
18 valedictorian of her class at Blessed Sacrament and at Cardinal
19 Spellman High School in New York; inspired by her high school
20 debate coach, Ken Moy, who attended Princeton University, she
21 soon followed in his footsteps after winning a scholarship and
22 attended Princeton herself; at Princeton, she continued to
23 excel, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa; she was a

 

 

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1 co-recipient of the M. Taylor Pyne Prize, the highest honor
2 Princeton awards to an undergraduate; she then attended Yale
3 Law School, where she served as an editor of the Yale Law
4 Journal and as managing editor of the Yale Studies in World
5 Public Order; and
 
6     WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor has worked at almost every level
7 of the federal judicial system, lending her depth of experience
8 and many perspectives to the courts; after graduating from Yale
9 Law School, she became an Assistant District Attorney in
10 Manhattan in 1979, where she tried dozens of criminal cases
11 over five years; she was appointed to the District Court for
12 the Southern District of New York by President George H.W. Bush
13 in October of 1992; from 1992 to 1998, she presided over
14 roughly 450 cases; she was then promoted to serve as a judge on
15 the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by
16 President Bill Clinton in October of 1998, becoming the first
17 Latina to serve on that court; as a Second Circuit judge, she
18 has participated in over 3,000 panel decisions and has authored
19 roughly 400 published opinions; and
 
20     WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor entered private practice in 1984,
21 becoming a partner in 1988 at the firm Pavia and Harcourt; as a
22 private attorney, she worked as a general civil litigator
23 involved in all facets of commercial work, including real
24 estate, employment, banking, contracts, and agency law; her

 

 

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1 practice also had a significant concentration in intellectual
2 property law, including trademark, copyright, and unfair
3 competition issues; and
 
4     WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor has also served as a lecturer at
5 Columbia University Law School and as an adjunct professor at
6 New York University Law School until 2007; and
 
7     WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor has served as a member of the
8 Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness
9 in the Courts; she was a former member of the Boards of
10 Directors of the New York Mortgage Agency, the New York City
11 Campaign Finance Board, and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and
12 Education Fund; and
 
13     WHEREAS, Sonia Sotomayor is widely admired as a judge with
14 a sophisticated grasp of legal doctrine and a keen awareness of
15 the law's impact on everyday life, traits that will make her an
16 invaluable asset to the United States Supreme Court; therefore,
17 be it
 
18     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
19 NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
20 congratulate Judge Sonia Sotomayor on the occasion of her
21 nomination and wish her continued success in the future; and be
22 it further
 

 

 

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