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!

City of San Antonio Runoff Elections

You might have heard that there were some local elections last month. Perhaps you even voted in the election. For registered voters in the City of San Antonio's Districts 2, 5, and 8, the elections continue. In fact, today is the first day of Early Voting for citizens who live in these three districts. More information and details are available at the Voter Information: Spring 2009 City of San Antonio Runoff Election page.

If you are eligible to vote in one of these City Council Districts and you can't get to one of the early voting polling sites by Tuesday, June 9, Election Day is Saturday, June 13. Polls will be open from 7am-7pm. See the Voter Information page to find your local polling site.