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Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Sonia Sotomayor at inauguration ceremonies in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025. (Chip Somodevilla \/ Pool via AFP via Getty Images file)<\/p>\n
(Chip Somodevilla)<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 Liberal Supreme Court<\/a> Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued an unusual apology Wednesday for critical remarks she made about the upbringing of one of her conservative colleagues, Justice Brett Kavanaugh.<\/p>\n \u201cAt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n She was referring to an appearance last week in which she had sharp words for an opinion Kavanaugh wrote last year relating to a decision<\/a> that allowed the Trump administration to conduct broad immigration sweeps in the Los Angeles area.<\/p>\n Kavanaugh was in the majority, while Sotomayor dissented. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority.<\/p>\n Without mentioning him by name, Sotomayor on April 7 referred Kavanaugh\u2019s opinion, which sought to explain why he joined the majority, according to a Bloomberg Law report<\/a>.<\/p>\n She then added, Bloomberg Law reported: \u201cThis is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn\u2019t really know any person who works by the hour.\u201d<\/p>\n Kavanaugh, who is white, grew up in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, while Sotomayor, the first Latina to serve on the court, whose parents were from Puerto Rico, spent her childhood in a public housing project in the Bronx, New York.<\/p>\n In the opinion Sotomayor criticized, Kavanaugh downplayed concerns that constitutional violations were taking place during the immigration sweeps through the targeting of people without “reasonable suspicion” under the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.<\/p>\n He said, for example, that there is a large community of undocumented immigrants in the Los Angeles area and that they \u201ctend to gather in certain locations to seek daily work,\u201d frequently work in construction or related jobs, and may not speak English.<\/p>\n As a result, law enforcement would be likely to have reasonable suspicion to stop people in many circumstances, he added.<\/p>\n Supreme Court justices regularly make public appearances, and they generally speak about how collegial they are despite sharp ideological differences. Sotomayor\u2019s comments showed a crack in that positive depiction of life on the court.<\/p>\n Similarly, liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pulled no punches in a recent public appearance with Kavanaugh in which she heavily criticized<\/a> the court\u2019s handling of cases involving the Trump administration.<\/p>\n