Labor applauds Sotomayor as Supreme Court pick

Judge Sonia Sotomayor
(official White House photo)

ORGANIZED LABOR HAS given a ringing endorsement to Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a federal appeals court judge for New York’s Second Circuit and Pres. Barack Obama’s nominee to the United States Supreme Court.

Sotomayor would replace Justice David Souter, who is retiring after 19 years on the nation’s top court. She would become the first Hispanic ever to serve as a Supreme Court justice.

AFL-CIO Pres. John Sweeney issued a statement May 26 calling Sotomayor “a brilliant jurist” who “has worked at almost every level of our judicial system . . . and would bring more federal judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any justice in 100 years.”

Sotomayor is an American success story. She grew up in public housing in the Bronx, the daughter of a factory worker. Sweeney said she understands “the struggles America’s workers endure every day . . . and understands the real world consequences of the decisions she makes from the bench.”

He added, “She has enforced the rights of all workers to be free of all types of discrimination at work, to be paid the correct wages and to receive health benefits to which they are entitled. She has recognized that persecution for union activity can be a basis for granting asylum in this country.”

Judge Sotomayor was initially appointed to the federal bench by Pres. George H. W. Bush. Her appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court must be confirmed by the Senate.