U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Monday she feels daily “frustration” as conservative justices move the country to the ideological right.
In an appearance at the University of California, Berkely School of Law, Sotomayor was asked how she copes with the consistently conservative rulings from the court.
“Every loss truly traumatizes me,” but “I get up the next morning,” she said in response to the question, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. The crowd — about 1,300 students — applauded.
In her remarks, she criticized her “originalist colleagues” whom she said have come up with “new ways to interpret the Constitution,” changing rulings “that some of us believed were well established,” the Chronicle reported.
The 6-3 conservative court has had an eventful couple of terms, making its mark on some of the most consequential aspects of everyday life — from overturning the federal right to an abortion to ruling affirmative action in colleges unconstitutional.
With the benefit of hindsight, we know that even with Obama in office, the Republican Senate would have blocked a new appointment for RBGa seat after 2014. Perhaps it was naive of her to stay beyond the age of 80, but not many were calling for her to retire in 2014.
It really only became apparent how fucked the situation became when Merrick Garland’s nomination was blocked in 2016 and then especially when Trump was elected. Looking back, we can predict when the optimal time to retire would have been, but in the moment, it wasn’t so clear.