Dear Justice Sotomayor, Your Left-Wing Partisanship Is Showing

Did Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor forget that it’s generally frowned upon for judges to display their political partisanship? It’s a question worth asking given that the Obama appointee appeared to do just that in her recent public remarks.

On Thursday night, Sotomayor attended an event hosted by the notoriously left-wing American Bar Association (ABA), in which she seemingly made an indirect reference to President Trump and conservatives’ criticisms of the ongoing judicial coup among lower court judges who are stymieing the administration’s agenda via overreaching injunctions. As The Federalist’s Joy Pullmann previously reported, the ABA routinely “advocates for and engages in unlawful racial and sexual discrimination and is a highly partisan actor on behalf of the Democrat Party and other anti-Constitution activists.”

In an apparent rebuke to the judiciary’s critics, Sotomayor reportedly characterized her attendance at the event as an “act of solidarity” with the legal profession. The associate justice more outwardly abandoned impartiality by encouraging attendees to “stand up and be heard.”

“In all of the uncertainty that exists at this moment, this is our time to stand up and be heard,” Sotomayor said. “Right now we can’t lose the battles we are facing.”

“If you’re not used to fighting losing battles, don’t become a lawyer. … Our job is to stand for people who can’t do it themselves,” she added.

Sorry, but who is this “we” that Sotomayor is referring to?

It’s generally incumbent upon judges to portray a semblance of impartiality with regard to ongoing political matters, especially given that such issues could ultimately come before their courts (as has already happened several times under this Trump administration). To signal one’s personal views beforehand and eventually issue rulings based on one’s preferred outcome instead of what the law calls for is both improper and a gross abuse of judicial authority.

But much like her colleagues Ketanji Brown Jackson and John Roberts, Sotomayor doesn’t seem to care.

As previously indicated, what’s particularly disturbing about the Obama appointee’s Thursday remarks is their implication for matters involving the ABA that come before the Supreme Court. As aptly noted by Judicial Crisis Network President Carrie Severino, Sotomayor’s temper tantrum “makes a mockery of any appearance of objectivity in cases challenging the administration or involving the ABA.”

The JCN president highlighted how the ABA has filed an amicus brief in a case currently pending before the high court. Known as United States v. Skrmetti, the matter involves challenges to state laws prohibiting health care providers from providing harmful puberty blockers and genital mutilation surgeries to minors.

“So what do the Democrats who regularly look for lame pretexts for conservative justices to recuse from cases have to say about this?” Severino wrote. “And are the journos worried about the ethics of what [Sotomayor] said or are we all good?”

Sotomayor’s Thursday night outburst is certainly unprofessional. But it’s also another example of the justice showcasing her left-wing activism.

Over the course of her judicial career, Sotomayor has regularly used her position as a judge to manipulate existing constitutional and statutory provisions to argue for the outcome she wants in almost any given case. And as is typical with Democrat appointees, these rulings often further erode America’s constitutional order and advance left-wing despotism throughout the country.