President Barack Obama chose appeal court Judge Sonia Sotomayor. As the first African American president, he has chosen as his first pick, the first Hispanic to be on the nation’s highest court. In 2016, Obama introduced Merrick Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, at the White House. Obama has accused Republicans of blocking Garland for political reasons. He noted that Garland follows his earlier nominations of Sonia Sotomayor, a Latina, and Elena Kagan, who is Jewish, to the high court AP Photo