Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor to earn UM degree

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is slated to receive an honorary degree from the University of Michigan when she visits the campus for its bicentennial celebration next month, school officials announced Thursday.

Sotomayor receives the degree on Jan. 30, the same day she and Justice Susanne Baer from the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany are set to participate in “The Future University Community,” a conversation at the first of three Presidential Bicentennial Colloquia, officials said.

She and Baer, a 1993 graduate of the UM Law School and William W. Cook Global Law Professor since 2010, will discuss how their experiences have influenced them as jurists and answer students’ questions.

The UM Board of Regents approved awarding Sotomayor an honorary degree at its Dec. 8 meeting.

President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor in 2009 to the Supreme Court. The Princeton University and Yale Law School became its first Latina judge.

She has served both the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as well as served as an assistant district attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office.

Other Supreme Court justices who have been granted U-M honorary degrees include Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sandra Day O’Connor and Earl Warren, school officials said.