Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court nomination Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The seat was filled by Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. of the Third Circuit. Since Barack Obama's election, there had been speculation that Sotomayor could be a leading candidate for the Supreme Court seat of Justice David Souter, or for any opening on the Court during Obama's term. On April 9, 2009, Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand wrote a joint letter to President Obama urging him to appoint Sotomayor, or alternatively Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, to the Supreme Court if a vacancy should arise on the Court during his term.<ref name="Schumer/Gillibrand"></ref> On April 30,
Sonia Sotomayor conservative bloc had prevailed, and was opposed by the court's three female members: Sotomayor, Ginsburg and Kagan. They suggested that the Hobby Lobby decision was not the Court's conclusive opinion on birth control. In her dissent to the injunction, Sotomayor wrote that, "Those who are bound by our decisions usually believe they can take us at our word ... Not today." Sotomayor stated further her opinion that the decision compromised "hundreds of Wheaton's employees and students of their legal entitlement to contraceptive coverage." Sotomayor was an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law from 1998 to 2007. There