Sonia Sotomayor Sotomayor's ruling. On June 25, 1997, Sotomayor was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which was vacated by J. Daniel Mahoney. Her nomination was initially expected to have smooth sailing, with the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary giving her a "well qualified" professional assessment. However, as "The New York Times" described, "[it became] embroiled in the sometimes tortured judicial politics of the Senate." Some in the Republican majority believed Clinton was eager to name the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice and that an easy
White Hispanic and Latino Americans and most white Hispanics and Latinos are. The U.S. Hispanic media and the Latin American media are over represented by White Hispanic and Latino Americans and White Latin Americans, very often blond and blue-eyed, or green-eyed, particularly in "telenovelas" (soap operas). There tends to be an under-representation of non-white Hispanic and Latino Americans and non-white Latin Americans, amid claims that telenovelas, in particular, do not fully reflect the racial diversity of Hispanic and Latino Americans. For example, in the 2005 U.S. Hispanic telenovela "Olvidarte Jamas", white, blond, and blue-eyed Venezuelan American actress Sonya Smith portrayed Luisa Dominguez who is a