Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court nomination 2009, David Souter's retirement plans were leaked to the media, and Sonia Sotomayor received early attention as a possible nominee for the seat to be vacated in June 2009. On May 13, 2009, the Associated Press reported that President Obama was considering Sotomayor, among others, for possible appointment to the United States Supreme Court. On May 26, 2009, Obama announced that he would nominate Sotomayor to the court, with her formal nomination following on June 1. After her confirmation, Sotomayor became the Supreme Court's first Latina justice. The Appointments Clause of Article Two of the United States Constitution requires the
Hispanic–Latino naming dispute States. "Latino" as a category used in the United States may be understood as a shorthand for the Spanish word or the Portuguese phrase , thus excluding speakers of Romance languages from Europe. Both "Hispanic" and "Latino" are generally used to denote people living in the United States, so that "outside the United States, we don't speak of Latinos; we speak of Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and so forth." The term "Hispanic" was adopted by the United States government in the early 1970s during the administration of Richard Nixon after the Hispanic members of an interdepartmental Ad Hoc Committee to