Sonia Sotomayor- What you need to know

Sonia Sotomayor is the President's nominee for the Supreme Court seat being vacated by Justice David Souter's retirement. Here's what you need to know:

Here's a comprehensive and continually updated biography of Sonia Sotomayor at Judgepedia.

The understandable glowing White House bio page.

Her controversial 2002 lecture, "A Latina Judge's Voice" along with comments from Orin Kerr.

Jeffrey Rosen's article in the New Republic, "The Case Against Sonia Sotomayor", which questions the judge's temperment and command of legal technicalities.

Walter Olsen's essay in Forbes comparing Sotomayor's brand of liberalism to Ginsburg.

The controversial race case currently pending before the Supreme Court.

Sotomayor's bad decision on private property rights.

Sotomayor's good decision on private property rights.

Sotomayor's position on free speech.

Sotomayor's position on the Second Amendment.

For ongoing coverage, the best legal blog in the country, The Volokh Conspiracy, and the best Supreme Court blog, SCOTUSblog.

Video of Sotomayor claiming that the Appeals Court is were "policy is made":


The members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who will be deliberating Sotomayor's nomination.

A historical analysis of the Senate's Advise and Consent powers.

Read through these links for about 15 minutes, and you'll surely know more than most of the people yelling at each other about the nomination on the cable news shows. In fact, it probably won't take that long.