Breaking In: The Rise of Sonia Sotomayor and the Politics of Justice

Biskupic (Reuters News; American Original) examines how Sonia Sotomayor's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court was the result of a timely cocktail of a receptive political landscape and the jurist's own will, persistence, and smarts. The author looks at Sotomayor's coming of age as Latinos gained political power and documents the ways in which her ability to exploit her networking skills helped while she rose through the ranks. A fascinating chapter on President Obama's choice of Sotomayor recounts his options and the elements of his deliberations. There, Biskupic takes the opportunity to balance her generally admiring view of her subject by including pointed criticisms from some of the legal experts who communicated with the president at the time. She also includes insider stories of the justice's ability to unsettle the staid atmosphere of the high court by dancing at an end of term celebration and by selecting unconventional furnishings for her chambers. There is also substantive examination of Sotomayor's legal points of view with analysis of key cases from her career. Particular attention is paid to her steadfast defense of affirmative action.