Sotomayor '76 & Biederman '08: Two Degrees of Separation

In the short time since Sonia Sotomayor '76 emerged as a frontrunner to be President Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, the pundits have already begun slicing and dicing her record and qualifications:First, there was the New Republic piece that said Sotomayor was a "bully," "not that smart," and "has an inflated opinion of herself."Then Slate.com wondered why all of the women rumored to be on the shortlist were single and/or lesbian, and if we should care. We learn that Sotomayor was briefly married while at Princeton! (So that's who lives in Spelman's married housing--future Supreme Court shortlisters!)The most recent shortlist, according to the Washington rumor mill, lists six people: Diane Wood of the 7th Circuit, Solicitor General Elena Kagan '81, Sotomayor '76 of the 2nd Circuit, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (Canadian and former beauty queen!), Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Merrick Garland of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals (the lone shortlister sans with a Y chromosome).Today, an in-depth piece in The New York Law Journal goes through her most notable cases and presents Sotomayor as a well-prepared, sharp judge who is liberal, but pragmatic. The article quotes lawyers who have lost cases in her courtroom, but who praise her ability to pick apart their arguments.Hidden among the lengthy list of her notable cases is her 1998 ruling that the Grand Central Partnership and the 34th Street Partnership, two business improvement districts (BIDs) in New York City, violated minimum wage laws. That would be the BIDs co-founded by Dan Biederman '75, a.k.a. the father of former USG President Rob Biederman '08. Don't you love playing the "Six Degrees of Separation" game?And what did the elder Biederman--once called the Mayor of Midtown--do to become entrapped in the Puertorriqueña judge's legal wrath? He paid homeless people he hired $1 to $1.50 an hour and denied them overtime, including those who worked more than 80 hours a week and 1,500 hours total (mininum wage in 1998 was $4.25). The Partnership argued that the employees were part of a training program, and thus, outside the confines of minimum wage laws. But Sotomayor ruled that the homeless workers should be considered employees because they often did the same work as regular employees.The elder Biederman is credited for transforming the Grand Central, Bryant Park, and 34th Street areas from centers of blight into urban renewal paradise, but I guess there was a slight oversight in federal law abidance along the way. No matter; they've appeared to have patched things up, and now you can even intern for the Bryant Park Corporation/34th Street Partnership. It's one of the summer internships offered every year by Princeton Internships in Civic Service (PICS).But back to Sotomayor. Did we mention that she, like, totally saved baseball?(image source: tvtropes.org)