Local reaction to Sotomayor nomination

* "Obviously, I'm very happy the

president selected such a highly-qualified individual to be on the court, and I'm happy that she happens to be a Puerto Rican woman," said City Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez, herself a Puerto Rican. Quinones-Sanchez said that whether it's an image of President Obama walking toward Marine One, the presidential helicopter, or of his wife, Michelle Obama, gardening at the White House, young people are looking at them - and to the Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor - and saying, "Wow, this is normal!"

* Former city solicitor Ken

Trujillo, now a partner with Trujillo Rodriguez & Richards, LLC, was switching his TV between MSNBC and CNN yesterday morning. Trujillo, who served on President Obama's transition team, said that "excellence was always the first issue considered" in the nomination process. "Diversity was important but not the issue to drive the nomination."

* Nancy Santiago Negron, direc-tor of policy and planning for the Philadelphia Youth Network, was honored May 17 at a Manhattan event along with Sotomayor and 24 other distinguished Latinas by El Diario La Prensa. Sotomayor was the keynote speaker and "was really down to earth," said Santiago Negron. The judge told people who approached her: "Don't congratulate me yet. I feel blessed because my name is out there."

* Kermit Roosevelt, professor of

law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a former clerk for retiring Justice David Souter, called the Sotomayor nomination "a safe pick. I don't think she'll have trouble getting confirmed. It's hard to oppose her." Sotomayor "brings a broader range of experience to the Court, and it's a testament to the broader inclusiveness of society." *