Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday expressed faith in the foundations of U.S. democracy amid concerns that the country is on the brink of a constitutional crisis in the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term in office.
Trump’s allies, including Vice President JD Vance, have argued that courts are infringing on the Trump administration’s authority as many of their extreme policies aimed at reshaping the federal government have been blocked by judges.
While Sotomayor did not mention Trump, she explained the responsibility the courts have in using what she described as the “soft power” afforded to them by the Founding Fathers to interpret the Constitution.
“We have to, in our opinions, make it clear to the society, to the presidents, to the Congress, to the people, that we are doing things based on law and the Constitution as we are interpreting it fairly,” she said at an event hosted at Miami Dade College.
Sotomayor, who was nominated to serve on the court in 2009 by former President Barack Obama, also suggested that, unlike other branches of government, the Judiciary stands the test of time.
“Court decisions stand, whether one particular person chooses to abide by them or not, it doesn’t change the foundation that it’s still a court order that someone will respect at some point,” she said. “That’s the faith I have in our system.”
The liberal Supreme Court justice said most U.S. presidents historically have followed the rule of law, despite some exceptions.
“We’ve had moments where it’s been tested, but by and large we have been a country who has understood that the rule of law has helped us maintain our democracy,” she said. “But it’s also because the court has proceeded cautiously.”
A social media post by Vance over the weekend following a judge’s decision to temporarily block the so-called Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department data and subsequent statements by people close to the president prompted concerns about whether the Trump administration would be prepared to openly defy a court order, thus plunging the nation into uncharted territory.
Earlier this month, Sotomayor shared her disagreement with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Trump’s presidential immunity case.
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“I don’t think that Americans have accepted that anyone should be above the law in America,” she said. “Our equality as people was the foundation of our society and of our Constitution.”