Local Girl Makes Good

The confirmation and swearing-in late last week of Sonia Sotomayor as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice should be a point of pride not only for women and Latinos but for the local justice system in which she has spent virtually her entire career.

After growing up poor in The Bronx, it would have been easy for Ms. Sotomayor, following an Ivy League education, to make a fortune in the private sector without even a brief stint in public service. But ultimately what drove her was an interest in both the law and justice, and so she toiled hard first in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and then on the Federal bench until President Obama beckoned to add her to the nation's highest court.

Although 31 Republican U.S. Senators voted against her confirmation, it was notable that they found very little of substance to make a case against her, since with 17 years as a Federal appeals judge, she compiled a far larger body of work to examine than any other recent nominee.

The controversy about her "wise Latina" remark was overblown. Ms. Sotomayor could have phrased it more artfully, but she clearly was doing nothing more than to suggest that someone who came from her background could bring a different perspective and a fresher sensibility to the law than those whose upbringings and experiences fit the more traditional mold for judges. It's hard to quarrel with that.

The other controversy that hung over her nomination concerned her concurrence with fellow appellate judges in upholding the City of New Haven's decision to nullify two promotion exams for Fire Department positions because no black candidates and just two Latinos had scored well enough to fill existing vacancies for Lieutenant and Captain.

Ms. Sotomayor took pains not to detail her thinking on that case during the confirmation hearings, part of a general caution she displayed during the questioning by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She pointed out that she followed existing case law in upholding a ruling by a lower-court judge that the city's decision was justifiable.

A majority of her new colleagues on the Supreme Court disagreed—correctly, we believe, as was noted previously in this space—and ordered that the promotion lists be used. But disagreeing with Justice Sotomayor on a single case is hardly reason to believe that she will not acquit herself admirably in her new post.

And the landmark nature of that appointment cannot be overstated. Beyond the joy and hope it gave to young girls and Latinos, it is an affirmation for all Americans of the principle that drive mixed with intelligence can allow those from modest beginnings to aim high and reach their goals.