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May 29, 2009

Critics Question Court Nominee's Ties to Puerto Rican Nonprofit Group

Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, is now under public scrutiny for the years she spent on the Board of Directors of a Puerto Rican advocacy group, The New York Times reports.

Ms. Sotomayor served on the board of the Puerto Rican Defense and Education Fund from 1980 until 1992, when she was appointed to become a federal judge.

During that time the organization, now known as LatinoJustice PRLDEF, filed lawsuits concerning job discrimination and bilingual education and staked out strong positions on issues such as capital punishment, voting rights, and police brutality.

“While it’s fine to let your Puerto Rican heritage influence — or any heritage for that matter — influence your positions when you’re on a board, it’s quite a different story when you’re a judge, and I wonder whether she knows the difference,” said Curt Levey, executive director of Committee for Justice, a conservative legal group.

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