If it may please the court....

Last week President Obama, no stranger to "firsts" himself, made history again, nominating the first Hispanic woman to the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor. If you want to find out more about this appeals court judge in advance of her confirmation hearings in the Senate, there are lots of resources you can turn to.

Here is the President's official press release upon the nomination, and National Public Radio has news coverage and commentary from that day that you can review here.

The Law Library of Congress has compiled this extensive listing of resources, including some of her writings, citations to her previous confirmation hearings, and legal websites that are good sources for more information.

If you want to some Library research on your own, you can consult the Lexis/Nexis database. Searching on "Sotomayor" from the "People" tab will give you references to news items about the judge. To see the various cases she's been involved with, go to the "Legal" tab and choose "Federal and State Cases." By entering "Sonia Sotomayor" as a natural language term in the search box, you'll receive a list of the cases over which she's presided. Be warned, however, that this is a very long list!