Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is widely known as a liberal jurist who can reliably be expected to vote with her leftist colleagues, Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, on virtually every issue, as the three mostly march in lockstep. Ketanji Brown Jackson, in particular, seems to decide cases based on her own personal opinion, not relying too much on that pesky old Constitution.
But now Sotomayor can add a new adjective to her profile: “obnoxious.”
The Obama-appointed jurist took the unusual step of making a personal attack on a fellow justice, Brett Kavanaugh, at an appearance at the University of Kansas School of Law on April 7. She was talking about a decision the court made regarding immigration, and she didn’t like Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion in the 6-3 ruling:
Sotomayor did not refer to Kavanaugh by name, but she suggested that the author of the concurring opinion did not understand the actual impact of such stops. In particular, she appeared to imply that Kavanaugh had led a sheltered or privileged life, telling the audience that the opinion had come from “a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.”
That’s just plain rude, not to mention discriminatory towards a person based simply on their background. Doesn’t sound very “woke” to me. Meanwhile, the point she attempted to make is ludicrous: Just because someone’s parents worked for a living doesn’t mean they’ve never met an hourly worker — or even took on a starter job themselves at some point.
She went on to add this high-minded vision of herself and her superior ability to understand regular people. It was obviously another shot at Kavanaugh:
Life experiences teach you to think more broadly and to see things others may not. And when I have a moment where I can express that on behalf of people who have no other voice, then I’m being given a very rare privilege.
Yeah, she may have grown up in the Bronx, but she also attended Princeton University, following that up by graduating from Yale Law School. Soon she'll probably start calling herself “Sonia from the Streets.”
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Supreme Court justices, the classy ones anyway, don’t usually let their personal conflicts with each other play out in public. They’re supposed to be more sophisticated and above-it-all than that.
On Wednesday, the bitter justice apologized to Kavanaugh — what is not known, however, is whether Chief Justice John Roberts demanded that she do it. In any case, it was time to eat some crow:
“At a recent appearance at the University of Kansas School of Law, I referred to a disagreement with one of my colleagues in a prior case, but I made remarks that were inappropriate," Sotomayor said in a statement issued by the court. "I regret my hurtful comments. I have apologized to my colleague.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor used an appearance this week to suggest that Justice Brett Kavanaugh is an out-of-touch elitist. The comments were a disturbing departure from the tradition of collegiality and civility on the court. It was unfair and unwarranted...https://t.co/72aJImnbs7
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) April 10, 2026
Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School and noted legal pundit Jonathan Turley wrote in an article titled “Contempt of Court: Justice Sotomayor Suggests Justice Kavanaugh is an Uninformed Elitist” that her comment was inherently unfair:
The attack suggests that, while she is a “wise Latina,” Kavanaugh is a privileged prig on the Court. The fact is that many blue-collar (if not most) workers identify more with aspects of Kavanaugh’s jurisprudence. At a minimum, over half of the country is more likely to embrace his approach than that of Justice Sotomayor, who has been criticized for her comments in oral argument on issues ranging from abortion to puberty blockers to COVID restrictions.
The liberal wing of SCOTUS is widely derided by conservatives because of antics like this. In this episode, Sotomayor tried to strike a blow to the reputation of the top court in the land, but what she really did was disgrace herself. If she’s not utterly humiliated, she should be.
I bet CNN was crushed to have to run this graphic:
Justice Sonia Sotomayor has issued a highly unusual public apology to a colleague, saying her criticism of Justice Brett Kavanaugh was unfair. https://t.co/TUwJcAD8eA pic.twitter.com/eUajHvTc7m
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 15, 2026
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