Justice Sotomayor says she expects leaders will follow court rulings
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in October 2022. (Photo by J. Scott Applewhite/The Associated Press)
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in a talk Tuesday in Florida that she has faith the nation’s leaders will ultimately abide by decisions of the courts—a key question at a moment when President Donald Trump’s initiatives are being challenged, and some of his top advisers are complaining of judicial overreach.
Asked about the possibility that a president might choose to ignore a ruling, Sotomayor spoke generally and did not mention Trump.
“Court decisions stand whether one particular person chooses to abide by them or not,” she said. “It doesn’t change the foundation that it’s still a court order that someone will respect at some point.”
Her remarks, in conversation with Knight Foundation President Maribel Pérez Wadsworth at Miami Dade College, came after Vice President JD Vance and Trump adviser Elon Musk suggested flouting decisions by judges that have not gone the president’s way in the opening weeks of his second term.
Sotomayor pointedly said she did not want to wade into the uproar over recent remarks by Trump administration officials about the courts. She added that the nation’s founders had created a robust system of checks and balances to ensure each branch of the government did not gain too much power.
“Our founders were hell-bent on ensuring that we didn’t have a monarchy,” Sotomayor said.
The founders gave the power of the purse to Congress and control of the military to the president, the justice said. But she said the most profound—and fragile—power was that of the courts to interpret the law.
“It’s a soft power,” Sotomayor told her audience during the hour-long conversation. The courts, she said, can impose their power only through logic and persuasion.
Sotomayor said the Supreme Court can shore up public confidence in its work by being judicious about overturning long-standing law in its decisions.
“We don’t decide on the basis of public opinion, but we must be cognizant that every time we upset precedent, we upset people’s expectation in the stability of the law,” Sotomayor said. “It rocks the boat in a way that makes people uneasy about whether they are protected or not protected by the law.”
Sotomayor also said she was concerned about the effects of the internet on the accuracy of information that is available to the general public. She said the web has made it far easier to spread misinformation and told audience members that “we are going to lose our democracy” unless everyone takes care to consume quality information about politics and the government.
Her appearance came as federal courts across the country have blocked parts of Trump’s early blitz of executive orders. Judges have put temporary holds on Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship, freeze federal grants and loans, offer resignation packages to federal workers en masse and remove transgender soldiers from the military.
The judicial orders have frustrated Trump’s allies, who have lashed out against judges in recent days. Vance wrote on X on Sunday that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” and Musk called for the impeachment of a judge who blocked access by his U.S. DOGE Service to a Treasury Department database.
Trump has also criticized judges that have ruled against him but said in comments Tuesday that he would abide by their rulings.
“I always abide by the courts, and then I’ll have to appeal it,” Trump said of rulings blocking his agenda.
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