President Barack Obama welcomed Sonia Sotomayor to the White House, holding a reception honoring her appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We’re here not just to celebrate our extraordinary new Supreme Court justice,” Obama said. “We’re here as
well to celebrate an extraordinary moment for our nation, when we celebrate the impact Justice Sotomayor has already had on people across America who have been inspired by her exceptional life story.”
Sotomayor, 55, was sworn in on Aug. 8, two days after winning Senate confirmation to be the high court’s first Hispanic member. That televised swearing-in — at the Supreme Court — marked a break from the tradition in recent years of holding oath ceremonies at the White House. Starting with Sandra Day O’Connor in 1981, every new justice had taken an oath at the White House. Today, Obama welcomed Sotomayor’s family to a packed East Room where they were joined by Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens, members of Congress and several federal judges. Sotomayor replaced the retired David Souter.
Her first court session will come Sept. 9, when the justices hear an unusual second round of arguments in a campaign finance case to consider overturning the century-old ban on corporate political giving. The case concerns a 2008 documentary film critical of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The high court formally convenes to begin its 2009-10 term on the first Monday in October. On the docket are cases testing the ability of private citizens to sue over religious monuments on public property, the constitutionality of a government agency that oversees the accounting industry and whether youths can be sentenced to life in prison for crimes other than murder.
