• “Wise Latina” Sonia Sotomayor took the judicial oath of the Supreme Court on Saturday morning. She is the first Latina and the third woman to sit on the Supreme Court. [New York Times] — Her first case will be a snoozy-sounding campaign finance matter. Unless you’re into that sort of thing.

• Sonia Sotomayor has been confirmed by the Senate in a 68-31 vote. After she receives the oath of office, Sotomayor will be the first Latina judge and third female judge to join the bench. [New York Times]
• Chris Brown‘s sentencing for his assault of Rihanna has been delayed until August 27th. The judge on the case said she’d like for Brown to do hard labor as part of his community service. [TMZ] — That punishment’s a little better, but we still think Chris Brown should do some time to make the “don’t beat your girlfriend” message loud and clear.
• Unfortch, yet another celeb got busted for allegedly beating a woman. Tom Sizemore, who starred in “Black Hawk Down,” was arrested last night for misdemeanor domestic violence against a female companion. In 2003, Sizemore was convicted of hitting his ex, Heidi Fleiss. [FoxNews] — Hitting women: hot in Hollywood right now?

Hotly contested Latina Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was endorsed by the Senate Judiciary Committee today, by a vote of 13 to 6. Twelve Democrats and one Republican voted for her, which means maybe this thing won’t be so hotly contested after all? The New York Times says that Senate confirmation is pretty much guaranteed, even though some Republicans are pissed because they think Sotomayor is a liberal activist. Do you think Sonia Sotomayor will make a good Supreme Court justice? [NY Times]

Supreme Court justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor is in the middle her confirmation hearings. Each day, we reach new heights of irritation that her impartiality is called into question.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Senate Judiciary Committee summed up the tone the best on “Face The Nation” on Sunday, when he said, “Every judge must be committed every day to not let their personal politics, their ethnic background, their biases, sympathies influence the nature of their decision-making process.”  The implicit question-behind-the-questions seem to be, should Sotomayor not be confirmed because she may judge like a Latina and a woman, instead of like white males who comprise the majority of the Supreme Court?

While, obviously, Sessions is correct that judges must be fair and impartial, it seems to us like Sotomayor’s ethnic background is only a big to do right now because it’s something other than white—as if white people don’t have biases, too.

Norma McCorvey, the woman who served as the plaintiff in the Roe vs. Wade decision which effectively legalized abortion across America, was arrested today with anti-abortion protesters outside of Sonia Sotomayor‘s Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Capitol Police told That Washington Post that McCorvey and her pro-life cohorts made it into the chambers of the confirmation hearing and started yelling during Sen. Al Franken’s opening remarks.

Supreme Court Justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor takes the stand today in what looks like be one of the controversial confirmation hearings yet. (Well, besides that whole Clarence Thomas, pubic-hair-on-my-Coke thing.) In May, Barack Obama announced that Sotomayor was his pick to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court. Ever since then, the liberal Latina judge has faced wave after wave of Republican criticism. For the next seven days, Sotomayor will be nitpicked with the GOP’s fine sharp-toothed comb. While day one of the hearings is basically a warm-up, here’s what to expect as the questioning really heats up. [NY Times]

A lot of people are happy that Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, but Emily Bazelon from Slate found someone in particular who is pretty psyched: the only woman presently sitting on the Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

Ever since Justice Sandra Day O’Connor retired three years ago, Ginsberg has represented the XX chromosomes on the most important bench in the country with her colleagues—eight men. She spoke with Bazelon for the New York Times’ Sunday magazine about why the Supreme Court should have more women on it, why women might judge differently than men do, and her concerns about reproductive rights and the legality of abortion.

We collected nine bits of Ginsberg-ian wisdom, after the jump.  [The New York Times Magazine]

In case Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor hasn’t been unfairly ridiculed enough, she is now being criticized for her membership in the club Belizean Grove, which she described as a “private organization of female professionals from the profit, nonprofit, and social sectors.”

• A $121,000 lawsuit filed by R&B singer Brandy Norwood’s mother against Kim Kardashian has been dismissed. [People] – Norwood claimed that Kim had used Brandy’s credit card for unauthorized purchases, but considering that Kim’s a millionaire, that seems kind of unlikely.
• PopEater journalists tried out Lindsay Lohan’s tanning spray, to see if the horrid orange color that LiLo often sports would look better on their own skin. [PopEater]—The verdict, as expected, was that it didn’t.
• “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here” producers are trying desperately to get Spencer and Heidi back to the jungle. [Life and Style]—Rumor has it that Heidi’s sister, Holly, will be making an appearance as well.

Just how much does gender influence the way a judge makes decisions?

The New York Times tried to tackle this behemoth question—as it pertains to Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court—in one tight little article this weekend. And while we hate to nitpick, the title alone kinda pissed us off: “Debate On Whether Female Judges Decide Differently Arises Anew.”

Of course men and women are different. We have different life experiences, different hormones coursing through our bodies, and different ideas of what constitutes a clean bathtub. But our problem when talking about differences is more of a semantic one: why is being a male considered “normal,” but being a female is considered “different”? We don’t like the implication of phrases like “will Sotomayor decide differently” or “does Ginsberg decide differently?”, as if decisions made by males are status quo and what should be normal. How did being of the less-represented gender equal some kind of bias?

So, I really couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a new cartoon that ran in The Oklahoman. “Fiesta Time at the First Confirmation” oh-so-inappropriately depicts Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor… strung up like a piñata. Cameras and microphones look on as a sombrero-wearing President Obama asks, “Who wants to be first?” to a bunch of bat-toting elephants.

Whoa! I have some issues. (1) Lets start with the fact that Sotomayor is Puerto Rican, not Mexican. (2) A woman hanging from a rope while men watch just conjures up dark images in my mind. Who wants to go first? I won’t even say what that makes me think. (3) The elephants—representing conservative America—are facing Obama and Sotomayor with baseball bats. Can you say lynch mob reference? I’m not usually overly sensitive about these things—I am a freedom of speech supporter and always appreciate a good envelope pushing—but really?

So what do you think? Am I overreacting or does this cartoon suck? [Huffington Post]

We think it’s pretty dope that Sonia Sotomayor, Obama’s pick for Supreme Court justice, is (a) a lady and (b) could the first person of Hispanic descent to don Supreme Court robes. But many pro-choice advocates are sounding alarm bells today because they have a sneaking suspicion that, once on the bench, Sotomayor may not uphold Roe v. Wade, something they think should be a “no duh” for a judge appointed by a pro-choice president. What’s got them worried, after the jump… [NY Times]

This morning, President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor, 54, to the U.S. Supreme Court as Justice David Souter’s successor. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Sotomayor would be the third woman and first Hispanic to be seated on the Supreme Court. Here’s a background check.

1. Sotomayor was born in New York to Puerto Rican parents. She grew up in a South Bronx housing project near the old Yankee Stadium and was raised by her mother, a nurse, following her father’s death when she was 9.
2. She loved Nancy Drew growing up (just like us!) and wanted to be a police detective, but having diabetes put a damper on that dream. An apparent pop culture-junkie, Sotomayor has said that “Perry Mason” was the reason she decided to become a lawyer.
3. Sotomayor graduated from Princeton University and Yale University’s Law School, but she returned to New York after finishing school and now owns a condo in Greenwich Village.