Supreme Court Nominee and the FEHBP

President Obama today nominated U.S. appellate judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court seat being vacated by Justice Souter. I can tell my answering service to stand down. Also the FEHBlog notes that the good Judge authored the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit's decision in the Empire Healthchoice Assurance Inc v. McVeigh, 396 F.3d 135, case which the Supreme Court ultimately upheld. McVeigh is the Supreme Court's only decision interpreting the FEHB Act.

On the fun facts to know and tell front, CNN reports that "Over the course of almost 17 years on the federal bench, Sotomayor has written opinions on at least eight cases that the Supreme Court later reviewed on appeal, according to a CNN analysis of Sotomayor's cases. Of those cases, six were either overturned or sent back to the lower court for further consideration. One case was upheld, but Sotomayor's legal reasoning was panned in the opinion signed by entire court. An eighth case is still being deliberated." CNN mistakenly lists McVeigh as a Supreme Court decision that reversed Judge Sotomayor.