On Monday, July 13, 2009, U.S. Capitol Police officers arrested two women for disrupting

the Senate confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor.

At the time, Sotomayor was a federal appeals court judge in New York.

President Obama had nominated her to a seat on the US Supreme Court.

This was a vacancy that arose when Justice David Souter had decided to retire.

The Senate eventually approved the nomination

with a 6831 vote, and Justice Sotomayor

joined the Supreme Court.

The two women arrested at the Hart Senate office building that day were part of a group led by Randall Terry.

He was the head of an organization dedicated to end legal abortion called Operation Rescue.

When the women started shouting during the opening statement of

Senator Al Franken, police officers removed them from the room.

Their names were Francis Mahoney and Norma McCorvy.

Norma McCorvy had been an anti-abortion activist since about 1995 when she'd become

friendly with Operation Rescue protesters.

And McCorvey was a woman with a colorful past.

She'd been a reform school dropout, a carnival barker, a cleaning woman,

and a roller skating car hop. She'd been married young, divorced, and then had a 35-year

relationship with a woman named Connie Gonzalez. Earlier in her life, she had hit one of many

rough patches.

In September of 1969, McCorvey was 22 years old, single, poor,

and found out that she was pregnant.

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