WASHINGTON (AP) – Under-Vice President Kamala Harris was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday, a history in which the first black, South Asian and female vice-president took her oath of office from the first Latina justice.
Harris chose Sotomayor for the task, according to a person familiar with the decision. She will also use two Bibles for the ulcer, one of which belongs to Thurgood Marshall, the first judge of the Black Supreme Court.
ABC News first reported the latest details of Harris’ inauguration plans.
Harris expressed admiration for both Sotomayor and Marshall. She and Sotomayor share experience as prosecutors, and she once called Marshall – like Harris, an alumnus of Howard University – one of her ‘greatest heroes’.
The elected vice president said a video posted on Twitter that she regarded Marshall as ‘one of the main reasons why I wanted to become a lawyer’, and called him a ‘fighter’ in the courtroom.
And this will be the second time that Sotomayor is participating in an inauguration. She swore in President-elect Joe Biden in 2013 as vice president.