Local lawyers and Latino leaders gave heartfelt, enthusiastic praise to President Barack Obama's nomination of Latina federal appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"This is unarguably the biggest thing to happen to our Latino community," said Juan Andrade, co-founder of the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute and a Griffith resident. "This is a level to which no Hispanic has reached. It is significant. It gives life to the meaning of the Hispanic experience."

MORE: Learn more about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Sotomayor, 54, a Yale Law School graduate and Bronx native, would be the first Hispanic and third female U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Obama's nomination is the crowning accomplishment in a career of many achievements: Yale Law School; a stint as a litigator at a Manhattan law firm; a key ruling victory in 1995 that brought Major League Baseball back to the nation after a strike; and, most recently, a job as a federal appeals judge.

The Manhattan-born Sotomayor's humble upbringing has shaped her personality -- vibrant and colorful, and so different from the Bronx projects where she grew up in a working-class family in a home with a drab yellow kitchen. A food-loving baseball buff, she is as likely to eat a hot dog at a street-corner stand as she is to sit down for a meal at a swank Manhattan restaurant.

Her work and everything else in her life are sure to face close scrutiny in the months ahead in a process Sotomayor is all too familiar with. Her nomination to the appeals court was delayed 15 months, reportedly because of concerns by Republicans that she some day might be considered for the Supreme Court.

"It is a proud day," said state Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond. "It is important that the bench reflect the constituency. We need her there. We need her grace and ability to do the job."

State Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster, said the nomination "speaks to Obama's commitment to shaping the U.S. Supreme Court to look like the United States, the whole United States."

"I liked very much what the president said about Judge Sotomayor having a 'common touch,' and an 'understanding about how ordinary people live,' " Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said.

Indiana Supreme Court Justice Robert Rucker, who grew up in Gary, said he could not speak to Sotomayor's record. But as the first black appointed to the Indiana Court of Appeals and second to sit on the state Supreme Court, Rucker welcomed the nomination of a diverse jurist to the nation's high court.

"What's really at stake -- whether it's on the national level or on a state level -- is how our citizens view and perceive our courts," Rucker said. "The greater the diversity on those benches, I think, the greater likelihood that will have a public and a citizenry that respects the court and sees it as a place where they can go and be treated fairly and impartially."

Mark Harrington, of the Center for Bio Ethical Reform in California, was less enthusiastic, noting "her judicial philosophy is as a far-left ideologue."

"Sotomayor believes the courts, not the Legislature, should create social policy. Her philosophy blurs the separation of powers. She is an activist judge who will permit her personal opinion, not the Constitution, to determine her decisions."

For Andrade, she represents much for the future of Latino leaders and youths who have grown up in less than desirable conditions, with a lack of role models and missed economic opportunities.

Her nomination, he said, shows all Latinos they should "not let others decide what they are capable of."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.