I. INTRODUCTION Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has experienced more in a lifetime than most people ever will. Growing up in a Puerto Rican family living in a South Bronx housing project, Sotomayor excelled in the classroom, graduating as valedictorian of her high school class and achieving remarkable academic records at Princeton University and Yale Law School. (2) After law school, she worked in the Manhattan District Attorney's office and a top-flight law firm before being appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by President George H.W. Bush and later to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by President Clinton. (3) Throughout her career, she has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. (4)
