By Michael Shear, Debbi Wilgoren and Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 10:39 AM

President Obama this morning nominated U.S. appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor of New York to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court.

If confirmed, Sotomayor, 54, would be the first Supreme Court justice of Hispanic descent and only the third woman ever to sit on the panel. She grew up in a Bronx housing project, went on to Princeton University and Yale Law School, and has stirred controversy by saying that judges' legal findings are informed by their own life experiences as well as their legal research.

Obama, too, has said jurists' life experiences are a key part of their legal makeup, and he cited Sotomayor's compelling personal story as one of the motivations for his choice. Aides said Obama met Sotomayor in person for the first time Thursday at the White House, and made his decision to nominate her last night.

"Judge Sotomayor has worked at almost every level of our judicial system, providing her with a depth of experience and a breadth of perspective that will be invaluable to her as a Supreme Court justice," Obama said in the East Room announcement, before an enthusiastic crowd that included Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, NAACP officials, Sotomayor's mother and other relatives and some of her former law clerks.

Describing the sacrifices made by Sotomayor's parents, who came from Puerto Rico to New York to raise their family and focused all their efforts on their children's education, Obama said the family exemplified the American dream. "What Sonia will bring to the court then, is not only the knowledge and gained over a brilliant legal career, but also the wisdom accumulated from an inspiring life's journey," Obama said.

Obama made the announcement before leaving Washington for a two-day trip to California and Las Vegas that will focus mostly on fundraising event. He set a deadline of confirming Sotomayor by the start of the Senate's five-week recess, slated to begin Aug. 7.

Sotomayor, who has been considered a likely Supreme Court pick if there was an opening while a Democrat was in the White House, called the nomination "the most humbling honor of my life." Since Souter announced his retirement May 1, analysts had widely predicted that she would be Obama's choice.

Picking Sotomayor offers the president an opportunity to potentially shape the court in a way that his liberal constituency will like. And aides have said the president has been keenly aware of wanting to make an historic pick by naming the first Hispanic justice.

Already, activists on the left are cheering the pick. "We already know that she is a brilliant lawyer who is committed to ruling based on the Constitution and the law, not on her own personal political views," said Doug Kendall, president of the liberal Constitution Accountability Center, in an e-mailed statement this morning.

The National Organization of Women issued a statement saying that she "brings a lifelong commitment to equality, justice and opportunity, as well as the respect of her peers, unassailable integrity, and a keen intellect informed by experience."

However, Sotomayor is strongly opposed by conservative groups, who have signaled their intention to use Sotomayor's nomination as a rallying cry against liberal causes. Republican lawmakers said this weekend they would try and slow down her confirmation, which despite the strong Democratic majority in the Senate could lead to an all-consuming fight this summer that could divert attention away from the rest of Obama's political and economic agenda.

"Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important that the law as written," said Wendy E. Long, counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, in a statement e-mailed to reporters this morning. "She thinks that judges should dictate policy, and that one's sex, race, and ethnicity ought to affect the decisions one renders from the bench."

Opponents point out that even the Obama administration has differed with one of Sotomayor's more controversial decisions, which invalidated results of a firefighter promotion exam in New Haven, Conn.

White House advisers believe there is little likelihood that Republicans can stop her confirmation unless some unknown damaging information about her surfaces. With the recent party switch of Sen. Arlen Specter, the GOP cannot effectively mount a filibuster without help from Democrats, which they are very unlikely to get.

But Obama's team is not taking the confirmation for granted. They are assembling a team of lawyers to help shepherd her through the nomination process, which will include a series of private meetings with senators in the coming days and mock hearings behind closed doors to prepare her for what could be intense grilling. They have also moved Stephanie Cutter, a longtime Democratic operative, from the Treasury Department to help Sotomayor through the process.

Sotomayor was part of a three-judge panel that upheld New Haven, Conn.'s, decision to scuttle a promotions test for firefighters after the results showed no African Americans qualified for advancement. The white firefighters who would have been promoted said the decision violated federal law and their constitutional rights.

The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, and a ruling is expected before the end of this term. The case went to the high court after an unusual dissent by conservative fellow judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, who said Sotomayor and two others tried to bury important federal law and constitutional questions raised by the firefighters' suit in their ruling.

The Supreme Court seemed unlikely to let the decision stand when it heard arguments in the case last month. The Obama administration took the position that New Haven officials could throw out the results if they were genuinely concerned that the tests were deficient. But it said the lower courts did not do enough to make sure the city was not using that concern as a pretext for scuttling the test because it did not like the results, and told the justices they should send the case back.

Sotomayor's Puerto Rican heritage would add ethnic diversity to the court. But her Ivy League education mirrors that of most of the justices -- all but one of whom attended either Harvard or Yale for part of their education. The eight justices she would serve with also were appellate court judges before joining the high court. But, as Obama pointed out, Sotomayor also served as a prosecutor and a lower court judge earlier in her career.

Court watchers had speculated that Obama might use the vacancy to appoint a state-level judge, or possibly someone who was not a member of the bench -- perhaps a governor or current or former legislator. In addition to Sotomayor, 54, the short list of those under consideration was widely believed to have included three other women -- one also a federal judge and two who are high-level administration officials. They were: Kagan, 49; U.S. appeals court Judge Diane P. Woods, 58; and Homeland security Secretary Janet Napolitano, 51.