It was little surprise in 2009 that President Barack Obama nominated a Hispanic judge to replace retiring justice David Souter.  The fact that there had never been a nominee to the nation’s highest court from the nation’s fastest growing minority had been long apparent. So the time was ripe—but why was it Sonia Sotomayor?  In Breaking In: The Rise of Sonia Sotomayor and the Politics of Justice, veteran journalist Joan Biskupic answers that question. This is the story of how two forces providentially merged—the large ambitions of a talented Puerto Rican girl raised in the projects of the Bronx, and the increasing political presence of Hispanics, from California to Texas, from Florida to the Northeast—for a historic appointment. And this is not just a tale about breaking barriers as a Puerto Rican. It’s about breaking barriers as a justice.