Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has complained that she feels “traumatized” by rulings from the court’s conservative majority.
Sotomayor, who was appointed to the SCOTUS by Barack Obama, made it clear recently that she thinks she’s working too hard and under intense stress due to the decisions coming out of the conservative-majority high court.
According to USA Today, Sotomayor laid it all out in front of a group of students at the University of California, Berkley School of Law.
She told the students that each “loss” her side takes is a traumatizing moment.
Liberal justices have taken a long list of losses since President Donald Trump shored up the conservative side of the high court’s bench, giving it a dominant conservative majority with an unprecedented three appointments.
Sotomayor’s rant session made headlines, given that Supreme Court justices are usually mature and classy enough to keep their personal feelings out of the public view.
”I live in frustration,” Sotomayor told the Berkley Law students.
“Every loss truly traumatizes me in my stomach and in my heart.”
“Every loss truly traumatizes me”: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor responds to question about how she copes with the steady stream of rulings by the court’s conservative majority while speaking at UC Berkeley on Monday.https://t.co/ykKm5IIwSI
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) January 30, 2024
Making herself out to be a hero for the liberal cause, she told the students, “I have to get up in the morning and keep fighting,”
“I happen, when I dissent, to think the others got it wrong,” she said, laughing.
“And they often do.”
USA Today noted:
“Her remarks came as the court is considering major issues related to gun and abortion rights, social media, and whether former President Donald Trump is disqualified from returning to the White House.”
Erwin Chemerinsky, Berkeley’s law school dean, asked the liberal Supreme Court justice how she would respond to students who are discouraged by some of the high court’s recent decisions that leaned toward the conservative side.
“What choice do you have but to fight the good fight?” she said, according to Bloomberg Law.
“You can’t throw up your hands and walk away.
“And that’s not a choice.
“That’s an abdication.
“That’s giving up.”
Notably, Sotomayor wasn’t asked about bombshell reports last year that her staffers “prodded” local schools and libraries to buy her books, as the Associated Press reported at the time.
That part of her job probably isn’t as traumatizing, given the money she makes from it.
