Liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor bucked tradition and decorum when she recently took a public swipe at a fellow justice.
Sotomayor made controversial remarks while she was speaking at an event hosted by the University of Kansas School of Law on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg Law.
While the 71-year-old Sotomayor didn’t mention any of her fellow justices by name, it was clear that she was speaking about Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops,” Sotomayor said.
That was a clear reference to when the justices paused lower courts trying to block Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from working, with a concurrence written by Kavanaugh.
Sotomayor then jabbed Kavanaugh’s upbringing, questioning whether or not her fellow justice knew anything about blue-collar woes.
“This is from a man whose parents were professionals,” she said. “And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.”
At the time, Kavanaugh argued that precautionary detentions would be short and uneventful.
Sotomayor contended Tuesday that for hourly workers, even a temporary detainment could have consequences.
“Those hours that they took you away, nobody’s paying that person,” she said. “And that makes a difference between a meal for him and his kids that night and maybe just cold supper.”
Sotomayor didn’t hold back in September, either.
As the New York Post noted, Sotomayor was part of an incensed dissent that included: “We should not have to live in a country where the government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job.”
While Sotomayor never named Kavanaugh, the thinly veiled shot could make for an awkward meeting at the Supreme Court.
Historically speaking, there’s always been a level of decorum and respect the justices publicly show each other, even when they’re on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, with longstanding traditions like the “judicial handshake” still in effect today.
(Think of the deep, warm, and respectful friendship between conservative Justice Clarence Thomas and late former liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.)
Lately, however, that traditional decorum appears to have curdled into something a tad more bitter — oddly enough, all involving the most junior justice.
In her majority opinion for the Supreme Court nuking universal injunctions, Amy Coney Barrett also juked Kentanji Brown Jackson from orbit.
“We will not dwell on Justice Jackson’s argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries worth of precedent, not to mention the… pic.twitter.com/je6FsoXxCi
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) June 27, 2025
Kavanaugh had to defend himself when he attended a March event where ultra-progressive Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, also at the event, began to publicly chide him.
But even beyond Jackson’s feuds with the conservative justices, she also appears to have drawn some ire from her fellow female liberal justices.
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