Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in Aug. 8 as the Supreme Court's first Hispanic justice and only the third female member in the top U.S. court's 220-year history.

She is President Barack Obama's first appointment to the influential court, which has shaped many of the country's laws on polarizing issues like abortion and the death penalty. As a successor to liberal Justice David Souter, who retired, she is not expected to alter the nine-member court's ideological balance.

Sotomayor won confirmation Aug. 6 in the Senate in a 68-31 vote.