Supreme Court's Sotomayor slams colleague Kavanaugh for ICE ruling [View all]
Source: USA Today
April 9, 2026 Updated April 10, 2026, 12:09 p.m. ET
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor took a swipe at fellow Justice Brett Kavanaugh at an event on April 7, criticizing her bench-mate for his recent opinion in an immigration case.
Speaking at an event hosted by the University of Kansas School of Law, Bloomberg Law reported Sotomayor spoke about the court's divided decision in September 2025 that allowed the Trump administration to resume indiscriminate immigration-related stops in Los Angeles. The stops sparked widespread protests in California and many people criticized them, saying they were based on racial profiling.
Over the objections of the court's three liberal justices, including Sotomayor's, the court blocked a lower court ruling that said federal agents need to have reasonable suspicion that the person they’re questioning is in the country illegally. “I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops,” Sotomayor said, referencing Kavanaugh's concurring opinion, though she did not name him explicitly.
“This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.” Sotomayor added, “Those hours that they took you away, nobody’s paying that person,” she said of those detained. “And that makes a difference between a meal for him and his kids that night and maybe just cold supper," Bloomberg Law reported she told the crowd.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/04/09/supreme-court-sotomayor-slams-kavanaugh/89537753007/
= new reply since forum marked as read