UPDATE: Sotomayor Has Net Worth Of $740,000
(Adds details throughout, including material on vetting process and background
on some recusals.)
By Corey Boles and Kristina Peterson
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor would face
few if any financial conflicts at the high court if she's confirmed, documents
submitted to the U.S. Senate showed Thursday.
Sotomayor, a federal appellate judge for a decade, has a net worth of $740,
000, the bulk of which comes from her principal residence, and she doesn't own
any stocks.
The details of her personal finances came as part of a 173-page questionnaire
submitted to the judiciary panel by the White House on Thursday. The panel
released the questionnaire, which also details all of her major decisions as a
federal judge and provides exhaustive details of her law career.
In her questionnaire, Sotomayor detailed the rigorous vetting process she
underwent to become President Barack Obama's nominee. Sotomayor said she was
first contacted about the nomination by White House Counsel Gregory Craig on
Monday, April 27, three days before Justice David Souter's intention to retire
at the end of the court's June term was made public on the evening of April 30.
Beginning May 1, Sotomayor received "nearly daily" phone calls from Deputy
White House Counsel Cassandra Butts. One private attorney and seven top members
of Obama's administration, including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and senior
adviser David Axelrod, interviewed Sotomayor on three separate occasions and she
participated in "numerous" phone conversations with a wider circle of the
president's top aides. Finally, she was interviewed by the president on May 21
and the vice president three days later. Obama announced Sotomayor as his
nominee for the Supreme Court on May 26.
Sotomayor lists total assets worth $1.16 million, of which $1.02 million comes
from property. She has $32,000 in cash, and other personal property worth $109,
000.
The disclosure lists $418,000 of liabilities including around $16,000 in
credit card debt and an estimated $15,000 in unpaid dentist bills. She has $381,
000 outstanding on the mortgage of her primary residence, and derives a small
income from a condominium in which she owns a one-third interest.
Several of the current justices amassed personal fortunes before they joined
the high court. The four most recent members of the court - Chief Justice John
Roberts Jr. and Justices Samuel Alito, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg -
all came to the court with comfortable financial portfolios that, at times, have
triggered recusals in business-related appeals.
As a district court judge, Sotomayor recused herself from 141 cases, largely
because of professional relationships with former law clerks and fellow
attorneys. She was careful to bow out of cases involving those with whom she
worked as an assistant district attorney and clients from her time spent in
private practice.
Occasionally, Sotomayor recused herself for more personal reasons, such as
when a case involved her personal insurer, Blue Cross, or when an involved
attorney was the parent of a student working in her chambers. Sotomayor excused
herself from the case of "Beatty v. WABAN, Inc., d/b/a BJ's Wholesale Club,"
because she was a member herself of BJ's Wholesale Club, a discount warehouse
store.
Sotomayor was named by Obama to replace the retiring David Souter last week.
Her completion of the lengthy questionnaire, which asks for extensive details of
her professional and academic career, came in a matter of days. She has twice
been confirmed by the Senate, giving her both a jump start and prior experience
in cobbling together all the information required to start her confirmation
process.
- By Corey Boles, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6601; corey.boles@dowjones.com;
- and Kristina Peterson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6619; kristina.peterson@
dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-04-091705ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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