Bronx public housing projects , diagnosed with diabetes at 8 , losing her father at 9 , accolades at Princeton and Yale Law , ending up on the federal bench . Still , in over 10 years on the Second Circuit , she has not issued any important decisions or made a name for herself as a legal scholar or particularly respected jurist . In picking a case to highlight during his introduction of the nominee , President Obama had to go back to her days as a trial judge and a technical ruling that ended the 1994-95 baseball strike . Moreover , Sotomayor has a mixed reputation among lawyers who have practiced before her , some questioning her abilities as a judicial craftsman , others her erratic temperament , according to a piece by Jeffrey Rosen in The New Republic , which itself has come in for criticism . Such anecdotal criticism is to be taken with a grain of salt -- while Justice Antonin Scalia 's bench-side manner is more vinegar than honey , even his detractors recognize his brilliance -- but it does need to be investigated . So , too , do certain statements she made
Editor 's note : Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute , a libertarian public policy research foundation , and editor-in-chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review . Before joining Cato , he was special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force-Iraq and practiced law at Patton Boggs LLP and Cleary Gottlieb LLP . Earlier , Shapiro clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit . Ilya Shapiro says the Sotomayor appointment is a case of identity politics rather than a choice on the merits . -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- In picking Sonia Sotomayor , President Obama has confirmed that identity politics matter to him more than merit . While Judge Sotomayor exemplifies the American Dream , she would not have even been on the short list if she were not Hispanic . She is not one of the leading lights of the federal judiciary , and far less qualified for a seat on the Supreme Court than Judges Diane Wood and Merrick Garland or Solicitor General Elena Kagan . To be sure , Sotomayor has a compelling story : a daughter of working-class Puerto Ricans raised in