Sonia Sotomayor has apologized for remarks criticizing fellow Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh over his role in an immigration enforcement case.
The apology came on Wednesday after Sotomayor, speaking last week at the University of Kansas, suggested Kavanaugh’s background may have left him out of touch with hourly workers targeted in immigration stops.
According to reports, Sotomayor referenced a concurring opinion in a September ruling that allowed immigration agents to consider factors such as English proficiency, ethnic background and presence at locations like home improvement centers when deciding whom to stop.
During the event, Sotomayor referred to a colleague who described such encounters as temporary stops and said the justice likely did not know people who work by the hour because his parents were professionals.
Though she did not mention Kavanaugh by name, he was the only justice in the majority who wrote separately to explain his vote, making the reference widely understood.
In a statement released through the Supreme Court’s public information office, Sotomayor said her comments were inappropriate.
She said she regretted the hurtful remarks and had apologized directly to her colleague.
Sotomayor, appointed by former President Barack Obama, has been one of the court’s most outspoken liberal voices on immigration issues. Her comments in Kansas were seen as unusually personal criticism of another sitting justice.
Last year, Sotomayor wrote a forceful dissent in the same immigration case after the court lifted a lower court injunction blocking the enforcement criteria.
Joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sotomayor argued the policy risked allowing authorities to detain people based on ethnicity, language and appearance.
Kavanaugh, appointed by former President Donald Trump, has not publicly commented on Sotomayor’s apology.
The episode drew attention because public disagreements among Supreme Court justices are usually confined to written opinions rather than personal remarks made in public appearances.
Source: Politico