This morning’s pick of Second Circuit appellate judge Sonia Sotomayor as the next U.S. Supreme Court justice is a truly momentous occasion. If confirmed, she will be the Court’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. 

There’s plenty of great analysis already out there this morning about the pick, including coverage by the SCOTUSBlog.  And Michael Fox is first out the gate with a recap of all the relevant labor and employment cases by Judge Sotomayor. 

Connecticut readers will no doubt recall that Judge Sotomayor was the author of a notable decision in the Ricci v. DeStefano case that is now pending at the U.S. Supreme Court. In that case, a group of firefighters contends that New Haven has discriminated against them because of their race.

But one case from 1995 stands out in my view, and not merely for my love of baseball; it was Judge Sotomayor who single-handedly ended the baseball strike.  (H/T Amanda Rykoff

On March 30, 1995, she issued the preliminary injunction against Major League Baseball, preventing MLB from unilaterally implementing a new Collective Bargaining Agreement and using replacement players, thus ending the 1994 baseball strike.  The New York Times did a interesting profile of her back then.

Her pragmatic approach in that case (and her knowledge of baseball) shouldn’t be overlooked as the confirmation hearings take place later this summer. Indeed, this is exactly the type of case that people can relate to and I expect we’ll hear a lot more about it in the weeks to come.