The Supreme Court’s ‘Wise Latina’ Had to Issue a Rare and Humiliating Apology

Earlier this month, Sonia Sotomayor stood before roughly 1,700 people at the University of Kansas Lied Center and took aim at a fellow justice. Though she didn’t mention him by name, her target was Brett Kavanaugh. In reference to his concurring opinion in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, she zeroed in on his suggestion that even when immigration officers briefly stop U.S. citizens or legal residents, those encounters are “typically brief, and those individuals may promptly go free” upon proving their legal status. Kavanaugh also indicated that “apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion; under this court’s case law regarding immigration stops, however, it can be a ‘relevant factor’ when considered along with other salient factors.”

Sotomayor dismissed the opinion as coming from “a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour,” which is a nice way of calling him a rich white boy. And, of course, she positioned herself as the antidote to that detachment. "Life experiences teach you to think more broadly and to see things others may not," she said. "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."

This wasn’t exactly surprising. Sotomayor has leaned on her identity for years, arguing repeatedly that her background informs her jurisprudence in ways that standard legal education cannot replicate. In a 2001 speech at UC Berkeley's law school, she said, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." The quote shadowed her through her 2009 confirmation hearings for being blatantly racist and contrary to the concept of equal justice under the law.

On Wednesday, Sotomayor finally issued what has been described as a “rare” apology.

"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," she wrote. "I regret my hurtful comments. I have apologized to my colleague."

It’s not clear whether someone instructed her to apologize or did so of her own accord — my money is on a forced apology — but this is hardly the first time she’s publicly expressed dissatisfaction with her fellow justices.

Sotomayor appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in September, during which she expressed frustration with the 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court and received a standing ovation for calling out the Trump-nominated justices.

Ketanji Brown Jackson has also taken public shots at the court’s conservatives, accusing them of abusing the emergency docket to deliver quick wins for Donald Trump on issues like immigration and federal spending. She dismissed those rulings as “back-of-the-envelope” decisions issued with little reasoning. This, of course, is hilarious considering that others routinely mock her for her poor grasp of legal issues.

Earlier this month, Jackson drew fresh criticism for a head-scratching analogy about foreign law. “I was thinking, you know … I, a U.S. citizen, am visiting Japan… Its allegiance, meaning, can they control you as a matter of law?” she said, suggesting that being subject to another country’s laws amounts to a form of allegiance.

It doesn’t, but I digress.

It’s interesting that such an apology is so rare, which tells you just how humiliating this is for Sotomayor.

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