Support Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the United States Supreme Court

July 16, 2009

The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy
Chair, Senate Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate
Washington, D.C.

re:  Support Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the United States Supreme Court

Dear Senator Leahy:

The City Project and I support the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the United States Supreme Court in the strongest possible terms.  She is eminently qualified to sit on the Court.

I served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York prosecuting complex federal crimes, and practiced international law at a large New York law firm. I graduated from Stanford University and Stanford Law School, where I served on the Board of Editors of the Stanford Law Review.  I am a civil rights advocate.  I was born in Guatemala and moved to the United States with my family when I was four years old.

Judge Sotomayor’s life story is compelling, the child of working class Puerto Rican parents growing up in the Bronx, raised by a single mother after her father died when she was nine.  Her family background fueled her drive to excel in school, graduate summa cum laude from Princeton, and graduate from Yale Law School, where she served on the Board of Editors of the Law Journal.

Judge Sotomayor brings more experience as a judge than any other Supreme Court Justice in one hundred years.  She was appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the greatest trial court in the nation, by the Republican President George H.W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate.  She was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by the Democratic President Bill Clinton and again confirmed by the Senate.

Judge Sotomayor has demonstrated through her actions that she is committed to the rule of law, and to applying the law to the facts as a judge.  Recent published analyses of her body of cases show that Judge Sotomayor’s decisions fall firmly within the judicial mainstream.  She is not a racist, sexist, or judicial activist, contrary to her detractor’s groundless criticisms.

Judge Sotomayor has been compared to Thurgood Marshall.  It is true that she will be the first Latina and woman of color on the Supreme Court.  Justice Marshall was the first African-American and person of color on the Court.  With all due respect to both, however, their career paths are different.

Judge Sotomayor has demonstrated her commitment to the mainstream values of this society, graduating from Princeton and Yale, putting criminals behind bars as a criminal prosecutor, and representing corporate interests as a litigation partner at a lucrative private law firm.  She has been a mainstream federal District Court and Court of Appeals judge.  She served on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, and of a public agency. Although such public service is commendable, it differs from the work of an activist lawyer, such as Justice Marshall’s.  Many mainstream corporate lawyers serve on the boards of such organizations or agencies. Without doubt, Judge Sotomayor has contributed profoundly to society through her accomplishments, but she is not known for having used her legal skills to achieve social change through law, or to deliver legal services to the poor.

Thurgood Marshall dedicated his life to achieve equal justice for all.  He pioneered public interest, civil rights, and constitutional litigation.  He founded the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (where I served as Western Regional Counsel), which served as a model for all other legal defense funds in the nation, including civil rights, women’s rights, and environmental law organizations.  He won 32 out of 35 cases he took to the United States Supreme Court, changing the legal fabric of the nation.  He inspired generations of lawyers to seek to do justice and not just practice law, even before becoming a Supreme Court Justice.  His gravestone says “Marshall / Civil Rights Advocate.”

My personal, educational, and early professional background parallels Judge Sotomayor’s, although we have never met.  I understand the impressive legal acumen and wealth of professional and personal experience she brings to the work she does, and what great promise she holds to serve as a Supreme Court Justice.

We urge you to support Justice Sonia Sotomayor for the United States Supreme Court

Very truly yours,

Robert García
President and Counsel
The City Project