ShareThisPresident Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to become the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court represents a brilliant political strategy that could bring Latino voters -- the nation's fastest-growing electorate -- to the Democratic Party for generations to come, many experts say.
The pick is "pathbreaking," said Kevin Johnson, the first Latino dean of the University of California, Davis School of Law, adding that Sotomayor's potential role as the first Latina on the nation's highest court is to Latinos like "the appointment of Thurgood Marshall was to African Americans in the 1960s."
Latinos voted in record numbers in 2008 -- with 67 percent supporting Democrat Obama, reversing trends established in two previous elections, studies show.
And Latinos accounted for nearly half the nation's population growth of 22.6 million over the past decade -- the bulk of that growth in the South and the West, U.S. Census Bureau figures show.
For millions of Latinos, the pick resonates on a deeply personal level, said Maria Ontiveros, a University of San Francisco School of Law professor who has specialized in immigrant law and followed Sotomayor's career for years.
"The idea that you can be a Latino and a Supreme Court justice was just so out of reach" for many generations, she said. "It represents the opening of all kinds of horizons, to say we will be judged on our accomplishments."
Obama's naming of Sotomayor, the daughter of a widowed mother and the product of public housing, won raves from women and minority leaders such as Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., who called her "a true American success story" who will bring "a common sense of understanding of how the law practically works in the lives of all Americans."
But the president's decision to nominate a daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants will have an impact far beyond the court, said Simon Rosenberg, who heads NDN, the Washington, D.C., think tank formerly known as New Democrat Network.
Rosenberg called it "an acknowledgement and affirmation of the great demographic changes taking place in America today. The percentage of people of color in the United States has tripled in just the past 45 years, and America is now on track to become a majority-minority nation in 30 to 40 years."
Andres Ramirez, NDN vice president of Hispanic programs, said the demographic wave has reshaped voting patters and elections, and will recast the look of Congress -- and the fortunes of the two major political parties -- in the next decade.
Nevada, Texas, Arizona, Florida and Georgia are expected to gain congressional seats -- gains that are "predominantly due to the growth of Hispanic populations" and could mean the election of new Latino congressional representatives, Ramirez said.
For Republicans, the implications are profound: "If they lose those states, there is no road for them to win the White House," he said.
"It's the sign of inclusion and their coming of age, and I don't think it will be lost on many Latinos," said law school dean Johnson. "You have someone who comes from humble beginnings, so she'll bring a different perspective. The more perspectives, ... the better a decision is likely to be."
In California, where NDN estimates that 81 percent of the population growth is tied to Latinos, GOP registration is declining so precipitously that there is no longer a single congressional district that is majority Republican, according to a recent study by the California Target Book, an analysis of the state's political trends.
Sotomayor's nomination was "certainly a brilliant move politically," said Patrick Dorinson, a Sacramento-based Republican strategist.
"Hispanics want the same things as everyone else," Dorinson said. "They want to work, they want a decent economy and they want their kids educated better than they are. So this pick is a good pick right now. But let's see what happens come election time. If things aren't progressing on other fronts, Hispanics will have the same concerns (as) everyone else."
E-mail Carla Marinucci at cmarinucci(at)sfchronicle.com.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
