Durbin Statement on the Confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor

From the Office of U.S. Senator Dick Durbin

August 6, 2009 - [WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) released the following statement today after the Senate voted to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor as an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court:

“When the doors of the Supreme Court open for Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the doors of opportunity open wider in America.”

“In the history of the United States, 110 Supreme Court Justices have served under our Constitution; 106 of them have been white males. We’ve had only two women justices and only two African-Americans. She will be the first Latina ever appointed to the Supreme Court. In life and in our nation, if you want to be the first, you have to be the best. Sonia Sotomayor surely measures up to that high standard and I’m proud to have supported her nomination.”