Editor's note: Michael A. Olivas is the William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law at the University of Houston Law Center and director of the university's Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance. He is the editor of "Colored Men And Hombres Aquí: Hernandez V. Texas and the Emergence of Mexican American Lawyering," and is a member of the board of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Michael Olivas says Sonia Sotomayor's nomination affirms that Latinos matter in America. (CNN) -- I recently saw an old episode of "West Wing," where Edward James Olmos, playing a fictional Puerto Rican federal judge, was nominated to become the first Latino on the U.S. Supreme Court. I cried, thinking how remote this possibility seemed, yet how close.
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Michael Olivas: Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination is a historic moment
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He says she has the personal and professional qualificiations to be confirmed
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Olivas: In American culture, Latinos are marginalized and feared
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He says Sotomayor's nomination sends an important message of hope
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