SOTOMAYOR TAKES OATH AS SUPREME COURT JUSTICE

Washington(Aug 8) - Sonia Maria Sotomayor takes her judicial oath Saturday morning before Chief Justice John Roberts at the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice John Roberts presided two ceremonies in officially installing Sotomayor to the High Court with a lifetime appointment. The administered private ceremony was an oath before the Constitution requiring all federal officials to support and defend the Constitution.

The second oath which was administered through public ceremony was a pledged to administer justice fairly and impartially in accordance and in consonance of the 220-year old Federal Law.

Sotomayor, 55, who rose from humble roots in a Bronx, New York having a high-calibered legal career was the first Hispanic and third woman, to sit on the United States Supreme Court. She was the first High Court appointee of President Barack Obama and becomes the 111th Supreme Court Justice. She succeeds to liberal Justice David Souter, who has retired.

Sotomayor has been a federal judge for 17 years. She was nominated by Barack Obama and the Senate confirms her nomination Thursday by a 68-31 vote.

Sotomayor was a daughter of a Puerto Rican parents who came to New York during the second world war. Her father worked in a factory who did not speak English well and died when she was 9. Her mother, whom she described as her biggest inspiration, worked 6 days in a week as a nurse to supprort her and her younger brother. She graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and attended in Yale Law School.

Her mother Celina held a Bible during the oath taking ceremony.

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