VOA慢速英语 Woman in the News: Judge Sonia Sotomayor

　　President Obama is urging the Senate to confirm Judge Sotomayor by August. The new court term begins in October. She would replace Justice David Souter who plans to retire in June.

　　Sonia Sotomayor will be fifty-five in June. She was born in New York City to parents from the American commonwealth of Puerto Rico. She grew up in a public housing project in the South Bronx, one of the poorest areas of the city.

　　She earned highest honors in history from Princeton University. Then she attended law school at Yale University. She became a federal judge in New York in nineteen ninety-two. The Senate approved her nomination by a Republican president, the first George Bush. Then, six years later, the Senate confirmed her appointment to the appeals court by a Democrat, President Bill Clinton.

　　Her newest appointment is not expected to change the political balance of the Supreme Court. Five of the nine current justices -- a majority -- are more conservative than liberal. Judge Sotomayor would replace a justice who has generally voted with the liberal minority.

　　And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.