Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Monday that she lives in frustration over rulings by the court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority.
“I live in frustration. And as you heard, every loss truly traumatizes me in my stomach and in my heart. But I have to get up the next morning and keep on fighting,” Justice Sotomayor said during an appearance at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
“Change never happens on its own. Change happens because people care about moving the arc of the universe toward justice, and it can take time and it can take frustration,” the court‘s most senior liberal justice said, according to CNN.
She also bemoaned some of the defense attorneys who appear before the court, commenting on their tactics during oral arguments.
“I can’t tell you how often I’ll look at [Justice] Neil Gorsuch and I’ll send him a note and say, ‘I want to kill that lawyer.’ Because he or she didn’t give up that case. Because by the time you come to the Supreme Court, it’s not about your client anymore. It’s not about their case,” said Justice Sotomayor, who sits next to Justice Gorsuch during oral arguments. “It’s about how that legal issue will affect the development of law and how you pitch it: If you pitch it too broadly, you’re gonna kill the claims of a whole swath of people.”
Justice Sotomayor is known as the court‘s most vocal Democrat-appointed member. Her comments come as the high court is weighing decisions on agency power, gun control, abortion pill access and whether former President Donald Trump can appear on 2024 ballots.
Though high-profile cases like the 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a national right to abortion, tend to be divided ideologically, the Supreme Court tends to decide most disputes in a bipartisan vote.
According to the Federalist Society, 48% of its decisions in the 2022 term were unanimous. Of 59 cases last term, only 11 were 6-3 rulings.