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BY SONYA GARZA

The day President Obama announced his historic nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, I watched from my parents' home in south Texas. My nephews and niece surrounded me with the noises of toddlers as I sat with my parents. As the president entered the room with Judge Sotomayor to make his historic announcement, my niece announced, "Mira. Es Obama," and my mom replied, "Y una mujer que se llama Sonia."

The announcement was especially meaningful to my family. My sometimes-apolitical father sat still to watch the press conference. My mother teared up before Judge Sotomayor even thanked her mother. The announcement broke racial barriers -- even if just for a moment.

Within hours of the president's announcement, all of the political talking heads began scrutinizing the effect of race in the nomination process. It was unreal that a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton and a member of the Yale Law Journal was receiving so much media coverage only because of her Latina background.

The media asked the same questions repeatedly: Had Judge Sotomayor's race affected her decisions? What about the fact that she stated that the "court of appeals is where policy is made" while speaking at Duke University? What about her speech titled, "A Latina Judge's Voice," given at UC-Berkeley School of Law?

Even given my personal identification with Judge Sotomayor's story, I will be the first to criticize the judiciary for being plagued with bias. Bias pervades our courtrooms in the most important cases.

However, bias in the judiciary is a reality that affects all of our courts, at all levels. And we should continue to scrutinize all judges, not just those who come from backgrounds we are not used to seeing on the bench.

With almost 17 years on the federal bench and a vast amount of practice experience in both the public and private sectors, Judge Sotomayor demonstrated her skill for restraint during the nomination hearings. She stated that her judicial philosophy is "fidelity to the law." Judge Sotomayor's decision to adapt the desired judicial persona is no different from others who have recently gone through Senate confirmation hearings. Most federal court nominees strive for restraint in an attempt to exhibit "fidelity to the law." However, Judge Sotomayor's personal and professional story is different in that she has struggled to assimilate while maintaining a connection to her cultural roots -- her race.

During the first day of Senate confirmation hearings, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., stated that Republican opposition is about liberal and conservative politics, "not about race." Sen. Graham is correct that it is about liberal and conservative politics, but it is also about race. It is easy to think that race should not be a factor when you look like everyone in the majority; when your race and gender are (over-) represented in every facet of society.

In 2000, the Census Bureau reported that Hispanics comprised 12.5 percent of the U.S. population. By the year 2005, it is estimated that the U.S. Hispanic population will nearly double. Despite those numbers, Judge Sotomayor is the first Latino, male or female, even nominated to our highest court. Many female voters are concerned about the lack of women on the court, but there is little concern about the lack of racial representation of large segments of the voting population.

My niece, Isabel, passed a newsstand this past week and looked up at my sister and said, "Mira! Es Sonia Sotomayor, la amiga de Obama." I do hope racial diversity in her lifetime is a given. And I hope both she and my nephews can learn about Judge Sotomayor's confirmation in their history classes and such controversies over race will become just that -- history.

Sonya Garza joined the Elon Law faculty in 2009, after serving on the faculty of the New England School of Law since 2005. She is a graduate of the University of Texas-Austin and Stanford Law School.