CNN
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Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the most senior liberal on the Supreme Court, advocated for a “fearlessly independent” judiciary during remarks Friday, telling an audience in Washington that she is worried about “standards that are being changed.”
“One of the things that’s troubling so many right now is many of the standards that are being changed … were norms that governed officials into what was right and wrong,” Sotomayor told an audience at Georgetown University.
“Once norms are broken then you’re shaking some of the foundation of the rule of law,” she added.
Sotomayor did not directly mention President Donald Trump, who along with his allies have flirted with defying court orders that have temporarily blocked him from enforcing some of his executive actions. But Sotomayor, who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2009, was clear that she was speaking about current events.
“The fact that some of our public leaders are lawyers advocating or making statements challenging the rule of law tells me that fundamentally our law schools are failing,” she said.
“Once we lose our common norms, we’ve lost the religion of law completely,” she said.
Sotomayor’s remarks came hours after the Trump administration filed its latest emergency appeal to the high court, asking the justices to let it temporarily enforce the Alien Enemies Act to rapidly deport certain immigrants. In that case, US District Judge James Boasberg is looking into whether the administration violated his order to temporarily halt deportations under the wartime authority.
The members of the high court have largely avoided discussing Trump and the legal whirlwind that has followed his first weeks in office. But Chief Justice John Roberts earlier this month pushed back on Trump in rare and short statement amid threats of impeaching judges who ruled against the White House.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts, a member of the court’s conservative wing, said in a statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Sotomayor offered more subtle remarks in February, telling an audience in Miami that she had faith the judicial system will withstand attacks.
“Court decisions stand,” she said. “Whether one particular person chooses to abide by them or not, it doesn’t change the foundation that it’s still a court order that someone will respect at some point.”
“That’s the faith that I have in our system,” she said.
