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Domestic policy
See also: Social policy of the Barack Obama administration
The first bill signed into law by Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, relaxing the statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits.[207] Five days later, he signed the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program to cover an additional four million uninsured children.[208] In March 2009, Obama reversed a Bush-era policy that had limited funding of embryonic stem cell research and pledged to develop "strict guidelines" on the research.[209]

Obama delivers a speech at joint session of Congress with Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on February 24, 2009.
Obama appointed two women to serve on the Supreme Court in the first two years of his presidency. He nominated Sonia Sotomayor on May 26, 2009, to replace retiring Associate Justice David Souter; she was confirmed on August 6, 2009,[210] becoming the first Supreme Court Justice of Hispanic descent.[211] Obama nominated Elena Kagan on May 10, 2010, to replace retiring Associate Justice John Paul Stevens. 