Supreme Court designate Sonia Sotomayor leaves her West Village apartment and is greeted by well wishers the day after being confirmed by the Senate as the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice, Friday, Aug. 7, 2009, in New York. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano)
WASHINGTON - If Sonia Sotomayor's spot on the Supreme Court is already known - on the end, farthest from the chief justice's left - the role she will play may become apparent only after years of service.
Even a federal judge as experienced as Sotomayor, who will be sworn in today, will need time to get used to life as a Supreme Court justice, a quirky job that is tradition-bound but also remarkably open to individual interpretation.
During her confirmation hearings, Sotomayor repeatedly told senators that as a judge she had faithfully applied settled law and court precedents to the facts of cases at hand. But her first task as a justice will be to determine whether the Supreme Court's past rulings on campaign finance reform should be cast aside, a potentially monumental decision that could reverse a century of congressional restrictions on election spending.
"It's a bit daunting, and she'll come in with no familiarity with Supreme Court procedure," said Stephen McAllister, a University of Kansas law professor who was one of Justice Clarence Thomas' clerks during his first term on the court.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is scheduled to administer to Sotomayor two oaths in an 8 a.m. ceremony today, the first before a small gathering of her relatives and friends. The court has decided to allow the second oath - the judicial oath - to be televised, marking the first time that Americans will be able to watch live the ascension of a member to the nation's highest court.
This will be the first of three ceremonies accompanying the arrival on the court of the 55-year-old New Yorker who for the past 11 years has been a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. On Wednesday, President Obama will host a reception at the White House, and the court will hold a formal investiture ceremony a month from now. After its September hearing, the court will begin its traditional term Oct. 5.
Her historic appointment will bring Sotomayor increased attention, but that is likely to fade as she begins work in one of government's most cloistered institutions. Because their proceedings are not televised - a decision Sotomayor seemed open to changing during her confirmation hearings - the justices are rarely seen. They feel no need to explain their decisions in interviews and never hold news conferences, maintaining that their reasoning is explained in the opinions they write or the dissents they join. A C-SPAN poll this summer revealed that more than half of Americans could not name any of the nine justices.