Obama Picks Latino Judge Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court Justice (Video)

Obama was looking someone with empathy and a "real life" storyline. He probably got both with his historic pick of Sotomayor. The Obama team values "story."

If confirmed, Sotomayor will be only the third woman justice in the history of the United States. She would also be the first Hispanic. Her parents came to New York from Puerto Rico and she lived as a youth in public housing.

Sotomayor would join Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the court. The first female was Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Sotomayor was nominated to the second circuit court of appeals by former President Clinton in 1998 and was tapped in 1991 for the federal court by former President George H.W. Bush.

Sotomayor, born June 25, 1954, is a 1976 graduate of Princeton, picking up a law degree from Yale in 1979. Her father died when she was a youngster.

The Democrats have 60 votes, but that does not mean there will not be a confirmation battle. She was already attacked by a conservative group--an hour before Obama's announcement-- as being too liberal.

Obama's vetting team had to be aware of a 2005 a videotape of comments Sotomayor made while on a Duke University panel discussion--about how judges on the Court of Appeals are "making policy." She did seem to jokingly note right after she said it her crack could get her in trouble.

That video clip is being replayed along with the story of her appointment. That clip will cause her aggravation and become a rallying cry for groups already organizing to block her confirmation.

Wendy E. Long, counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, a conservative group, said in a statement about the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court:

"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. 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.

"She reads racial preferences and quotas into the Constitution, even to the point of dishonoring those who preserve our public safety. On September 11, America saw firsthand the vital role of America's firefighters in protecting our citizens. They put their lives on the line for her and the other citizens of New York and the nation. But Judge Sotomayor would sacrifice their claims to fair treatment in employment promotions to racial preferences and quotas. The Supreme Court is now reviewing that decision.

"She has an extremely high rate of her decisions being reversed, indicating that she is far more of a liberal activist than even the current liberal activist Supreme Court."