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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court has a new associate justice.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in this morning in a brief but emotional ceremony that represented a number of firsts.

She became the High Court’s first Latina Justice, she is the first justice selected by President Barack Obama, and she took part in the Court’s first swearing-in ceremony broadcast live on television and the Internet.

As spectators, including Justice Anthony Kennedy, looked on in the Supreme Court’s East Conference Room just down the hall from the main courtroom, Sotomayor was administered the Judicial Oath by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.

With her hand on a bible held by her mother, Celina Sotomayor, and standing next to her brother, Dr. Juan Sotomayor, the Court’s newest justice repeated the judicial oath after Roberts:

“I Sonia Sotomayor do solemnly swear that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.”

“Congratulations and welcome to the Court,” Roberts said before Sotomayor emotionally embraced her mother and brother.

Earlier in the day, Roberts administered the Constitutional oath to Sotomayor in a private ceremony attended only by family and friends.

Obama did not attend Saturday’s swearing-in ceremony, but is expected to be on hand for Sotomayor’s formal investiture ceremony set for Sept. 8 during a special sitting of the Court.

Having taken the oath, Sotomayor can now begin reviewing the cases the Court will consider in its upcoming term. Once the justices reconvene, she will also have to assume a number of additional duties that have become standard practice for the Court’s most junior justice.  For example, she will be responsible for the justices’ coffee service when they conference, it will be her job to answer the conference room door if someone calls, she will be the last to speak and vote when the justices take opinion tallies, and it will be her responsibility to see that the clerk gets the Court’s orders. Since 2006, Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. has assumed those duties.

The new justice also causes a shuffle in the justices’ seating arrangements on the bench. She will now occupy the seat to the spectators’ far right, moving Alito to the far left, and the other justices alternate sides according to seniority. Roberts will continue occupy the center seat.

-Kimberly Atkins

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