Justice Sotomayor apologizes for “inappropriate” remarks about Justice Kavanaugh

Just over one week after lobbing pointed personal criticism at Justice Brett Kavanaugh for his concurring opinion in a decision by the Supreme Court that lifted restrictions on immigration stops that the challenger said are based on racial profiling, Justice Sonia Sotomayor called her remarks “inappropriate” and indicated that she had apologized to Kavanaugh.

Sotomayor’s comments came during an April 7 appearance at the University of Kansas Law School. She referred to Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, in which he suggested that even if immigration officers stopped people who were U.S. citizens or were in this country legally, “the questioning in those circumstances is typically brief, and those individuals may promptly go free” once they prove that they are “U.S. citizens or otherwise legally in the United States.” Sotomayor did not refer to Kavanaugh by name, but she suggested that the author of the concurring opinion did not understand the actual impact of such stops. In particular, she appeared to imply that Kavanaugh had led a sheltered or privileged life, telling the audience that the opinion had come from “a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.”

Remarks like Sotomayor’s are unusual, and on Wednesday afternoon Sotomayor apologized for them. In a three-sentence statement released by the court’s Public Information Office that once again did not refer to Kavanaugh by name, she stated: “At a recent appearance at the University of Kansas School of Law, I referred to a disagreement with one of my colleagues in a prior case, but I made remarks that were inappropriate. I regret my hurtful comments. I have apologized to my colleague.”

The justices return to the bench for oral arguments on Monday, April 20.