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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 confirmed to serve as an Associate Justice of
6 the United States Supreme Court; 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 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
 
14     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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1 editor of the Yale Studies in World Public Order; and
 
2     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
 
15     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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1     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
 
7     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
 
11     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
 
17     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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1 as a symbol of our esteem and respect.