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,
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