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US Justice Sotomayor arrives on Saipan
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Posted on Jan 28 2012
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor received a warm island greeting and leis when she arrived on Saipan around 6:30pm Saturday. Sotomayor, the first Hispanic justice, is the first sitting U.S. Supreme Court justice to step foot in the CNMI.
Sotomayor was accompanied from Guam by Interior Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs Tony Babauta and U.S. District Court for Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood.
At the Saipan International Airport, Sotomayor and her entourage were greeted by U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands Chief Judge Ramona Manglona, CNMI Supreme Court Associate Justice Alexandro Castro, NMI Bar Association president Sean Frink and other court staff.
“On behalf of the people of the Northern Marianas…we welcome Justice Sotomayor. [This is] the first time we have a sitting [U.S. Supreme Court] justice visit our islands,” Manglona told the media at the airport, adding that reporters will have the opportunity to meet with Sotomayor on Sunday afternoon.
Sotomayor arrived in Guam Wednesday night for the 2012 Annual District Conferences sponsored by the Guam Bar Association and the Northern Mariana Islands Bar Association.
Tydingco-Gatewood, in an interview with CNMI reporters at the Saipan airport, said “in Guam, [Sotomayor] decided to immerse herself into our culture.” She said the justice intends to do the same in the CNMI.
Sotomayor will meet with justices, judges, members of the NMI Bar Association, and students on Sunday.
Appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009, Sotomayor is the court’s 111th justice and its third female justice.
Press secretary Angel Demapan told [I]Saipan Tribune [/I]earlier that Gov. Benigno R. Fitial will be joining a reception for Sotomayor on Sunday.
Demapan said the Fitial administration is honored to have a sitting judge visit the CNMI. (With Ferdie dela Torre)
