Supreme Court Justices are usually tight-lipped. That’s what makes this news so surprising.
As Justice Sotomayor has made truly eyebrow-raising comments about her fellow Justices.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the United States Supreme Court admitted to students at the Berkeley Law School on Monday that she is “traumatized” by every conservative win given by the High Court.
“I live in frustration. And as you heard, every loss truly traumatizes me in my stomach and in my heart. But I have to get up the next morning and keep on fighting,” Sotomayor asserted in comments reported by CNN.
Along with liberal Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sotomayor is the senior liberal judge on the Court, having taken up her seat in August 2009. In contrast, the six conservative Justices form the majority.
“Change never happens on its own. Change happens because people care about moving the arc of the universe toward justice, and it can take time and it can take frustration,” Sotomayor continued, alluding to her dissatisfaction in the current political makeup of the Court and how it’s shifting politics in America.
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor says she feels "frustration" daily as conservative justices move the U.S. to the right.
“A Justice should not allow family, social, political, financial, or other relationships to influence official conduct or judgment.” pic.twitter.com/vzXDluh1jm
— Grand Old Patriots🇺🇸 (@GrandOlPatriots) January 30, 2024
A number of controversial topics, such as gun rights and Texas’ ability to defend its borders independently of the federal government, are about to be decided upon by the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court, which is the context in which Sotomayor has made her comments. Following the appointments of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court by former president Donald Trump, Sotomayor and her two liberal colleagues have frequently found themselves on the losing end of several disputes in the past few years.
Sotomayor also addressed the influence of oral arguments on a justice’s vote and the necessity for all attorneys presenting cases to the Court to emphasize how their arguments might influence American law, both positively and negatively, during Monday’s event.
“I can’t tell you how often I’ll look at Neil Gorsuch and I’ll send him a note and say, ‘I want to kill that lawyer.’ Because he or she didn’t give up that case. Because by the time you come to the Supreme Court, it’s not about your client anymore. It’s not about their case,” she stated.
“It’s about how that legal issue will affect the development of law and how you pitch it – if you pitch it too broadly, you’re gonna kill the claims of a whole swath of people.”
Following the Colorado supreme court’s decision to exclude the former president from being on the ballot in the state’s presidential primary due to his actions on January 6 being considered an insurrection by some on the Left, the Supreme Court is expected to shortly decide whether or not Trump is eligible to appear on the ballots. The date set for the start of the oral arguments is February 8.
Sotomayor’s comments are interesting for a couple reasons.
Firstly, she’s giving off this idea that the U.S. Supreme Court is extremely divided right now when that actually isn’t the case at all.
We’ve seen a number of cases have liberal or conservative Justices cross the aisle and vote against the way their fellow liberal or conservative colleagues would vote on an issue.
According to the Federalist Society, in 2021 the U.S. Supreme Court saw about 29% of decisions be ruled unanimously amongst all of the Justices. In 2022, the Court dramatically increased that number as the Justices ruled unanimously on 48% of all the cases taken during that term.
So even though the Conservatives have a strong majority, the facts prove that even the liberal Justices have been crossing the aisle more often than the radical Left wants its base to believe. They just want to peddle this idea that there’s a conservative majority that’s controlling the entire future of the United States in a sort of oligarchy.
Secondly, the too-honest comments from Sotomayor are being given a pass when they shouldn’t be. If Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett, or Neil Gorsuch were to make these comments that are so politically-charged, the radical Left would be losing their minds and would be calling for them to step down.
They give Sotomayor a pass because she’s simply not one of the Left’s hated Justices. That’s, unfortunately, just the way the Left plays politics.
Sotomayor (jokingly, sure) said that she wanted to “kill a lawyer.” It doesn’t matter who you are, that’s simply not becoming of the character of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice with a lifetime appointment.
Conservative Column will be keeping our readers up to date on any U.S. Supreme Court news.
