OBAMA NOMINATES CENTRIST HISPANIC TO SUPREME COURT

President Obama will nominate Judge Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court.

She is widely considered to be a centrist. What that means in actual rulings remains to be seen. An analysis of her appeals court rulings can be found here. Early indications are that she won't be much of a change from retiring Judge Souter, but will be a bit to his left.

She grew up in a housing project in the South Bronx in New York. Her father, a tool-and-die worker with a third-grade education, died when she was nine. Her mother, a nurse, raised Sotomayor and her younger brother, who is now a doctor, on a modest salary.

She went to Yale Law School and was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

See Black Agenda Report's story on her here.