Justice Sonia Sotomayor Apologizes For Swipe At Kavanaugh

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor apologized Wednesday for suggesting that Justice Brett Kavanaugh had a sheltered upbringing that made him insensitive to day laborers being targeted by the Trump administration for immigration enforcement.

During an appearance last week at the University of Kansas, Sotomayor referred to Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion last September in a ruling that allowed immigration agents to use a combination of English proficiency, ethnic background and presence at locations like home improvement centers to focus enforcement efforts.

“I had a colleague in that case who wrote … these are only temporary stops,” Sotomayor said, according to Bloomberg News. “This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.”

Although Sotomayor didn’t mention Kavanaugh by name, her reference was unmistakable because Kavanaugh — a Trump appointee — was the only member of the majority to explain his or her vote.

During the same exchange about the immigration-stops case, Sotomayor also remarked, “There are some people who can’t understand our experiences, even when you tell them,” the Lawrence Journal-World reported.

In a statement released Wednesday by the high court’s public information office, Sotomayor said she regretted her comments.

“At a recent appearance … I referred to a disagreement with one of my colleagues in a prior case, but I made remarks that were inappropriate,” wrote Sotomayor, an Obama appointee. “I regret my hurtful comments. I have apologized to my colleague.”

While Sotomayor’s comments in Kansas were unusually direct criticism of another justice, she wrote a fiery 21-page dissent to the ruling last year that lifted a federal judge’s injunction against the enforcement criteria allegedly being used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” Sotomayor wrote, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.