Sonia Sotomayor's first Supreme Court class photo here

If there was ever any doubt, today's class photo -- an annual ritual of the Supreme Court -- makes if official. Sonia Sotomayor is in the picture, the 111th justice, the third woman and the first Latino on the high court. She's also President Obama's first Supreme Court nominee.

In the photo, Sotomayor is standing behind two of the court's most conservative members -- Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- on the far right of the picture. No one expects her to vote that way.

Meanwhile, the New York Times is reporting that the Supreme Court's docket has plummeted from about 150 cases a year in the 1980s to half that now. The primary reason, according to a Yale Law School conference, is that newer justices tend to vote to hear appeals less frequently.

We'll see what the newest justice has to say about that.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo credit: Associated Press

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Comments

[amjustsayin]

i didn't think she was "best" for the job but she is there now and should be inspiration. i'm proud of her :-)

[lee taveras]

hello ms. sotomayor i think that you are so blessed and that you are a very beutiful woman