Sonia Sotomayor A Front Runner for Supreme Court Justice

Supreme Court Justice David Souter's imminent retirement has given the Obama administration a chance to do something that has never been done before: Appoint a Latina to the Supreme Court. And chances are looking good for NYC native Sonia Sotomayor.

At a recent meeting convened by senior White House officials, potential replacements were discussed and the name that kept on coming up again and again and seems to be President Barack Obama's favorite is that of Boricua judge Sotomayor. Currently a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, Sotomayor, 54, was born and raised in a Bronx housing project before rising to prominence. She garnered a full scholarship to prestigious Princeton University in 1972, only 3 years after the school began accepting women. From there she moved on to Yale Law School.

Although branded an "unlikely" success story by many in the media, Sotomayor never had any doubt as to where she was headed. She always knew she was going to be successful, "I was going to college and I was going to become an attorney, and
I knew that when I was 10," Sotomayor told the NY Daily News, "Ten. That's no jest."

In 1991, Sen. Daniel Patrick Monynihan recommended Sotomayor to the first President Bush for a seat in the U.S. Court of Appeals, and Bush came through on a promise to appoint a Latino to a district court in New York. At the age of 40 Sotomayor became the youngest and the first judge of Puerto Rican descent in the Southern District of New York.