How would Judge Sotomayor approach my issue?

Q: I'd like to understand how U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor approaches the issue of future persecution in asylum cases. Is there an easy way to retrieve orders and judicial opinions authored or joined by Judge Sotomayor that discuss this issue?

A: There are at least two easy ways.

First, you can review Judge Sotomayor's Litigation History Report. To retrieve a Litigation History Report of orders and opinions she authored or joined from 1992 (the year she was first appointed) to the present, complete these steps:

1. Retrieve Judge Sonia Sotomayor's profile from the Profiler–Profiles of Attorneys and Judges database (PROFILER-WLD).
2. Click Litigation History Reports on the Links tab.
3. Click Case Types under Litigation History Reports. A Case Types table is displayed, which lists caseload by case type.
4. Use the Date Range drop-down lists to specify a date range of 1992-2009. Then click Submit.
5. Click Immigration Law. The immigration case type is expanded to asylum, deportation and removal, and other areas. To expand the table further, click Asylum; then click Future Persecution.
6. For links to specific judicial orders and opinions, click Document List on the Links tab.

Second, you can search the newly released Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor Opinions and Papers database (SOTOMAYOR-NOM), a database of opinions, orders, briefs, and other documents that she authored or joined. With SOTOMAYOR-NOM, you can narrow your search using field restrictions. For example, to narrow your search to opinions and other documents authored by Judge Sotomayor that involve the persecution claims of asylum applicants, add an author field (au) restriction to your query, e.g., au(sotomayor) & persecut! /p asylum.

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