Justice Sotomayor Issues Rare Public Apology for ‘Hurtful’ Comment About Justice Kavanaugh

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has made a rare public apology to Justice Brett Kavanaugh for “inappropriate” and “hurtful” remarks she made about his opinion in an immigration case. Earlier this month, Justice Sotomayor suggested while speaking at the University of Kansas School of Law that Justice Kavanaugh “probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour,” and did not understand the impact of his stance in the case.On Wednesday evening, she apologized for the comment, saying, “I referred to a disagreement with one of my colleagues in a prior case, but I made inappropriate remarks. I regret my hurtful comments. I have apologized to my colleague.”Justice Kavanaugh has not publicly responded to Justice Sotomayor’s jab. Justice Sotomayor’s jab referred to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a lower court ruling that prevented immigration officials from taking an individual’s race or language into consideration when they detained or questioned someone they suspected of being an illegal immigrant.In a concurrence, Justice Kavanaugh wrote that encounters with immigration officials are “typically brief, and those individuals may promptly go free.”However, Justice Sotomayor took issue with that assertion during her remarks at the University of Kansas. Without mentioning her colleague by name, she said, “I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops.”“This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour,” she said. “Those hours that they took you away, nobody’s paying that person. And that makes a difference between a meal for him and his kids that night and maybe just cold supper.”The public apology from Justice Sotomayor is a rare occurrence from justices on America’s highest court. Current and former justices have frequently praised the collegial atmosphere among the justices despite their disagreements. During her remarks at the University of Kansas, Justice Sotomayor said that she has a “civil relationship” with “virtually all of them” and “with many of them, I think I dare say that I have a friendship.”In 2024, a retired associate justice, Stephen Breyer, wrote in a column in the New York Times that during his time on the bench, he experienced that same spirit. He said that while the justices have “considerable disagreements on professional matters,” those disagreements “remain professional, not personal.”However, there have been signs that the friendly atmosphere may be fraying. During an appearance at the University of Texas at Austin on Wednesday, Justice Clarence Thomas spoke about his concern that the civility on the bench may not last.“I joined the court that dealt with differences as friends, as we respected each other. … That’s civility. I don’t know how you bring it back in the current environment with social media and name calling and all, and people accusing each other of various things and animus,” Justice Thomas said. “I don’t know how you do that, and I fear that that’s going to infect the institutions such as the court and judges, etc., in the future.”

Justice Sotomayor Issues Rare Public Apology for ‘Hurtful’ Comment About Justice Kavanaugh

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