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Sotomayor felt ‘sense of despair’ over Supreme Court’s direction

January 5, 2023 Published by

Just In | The Hill 

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that she felt a “sense of despair” with the direction of the nation’s highest court amid the fallout from the court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last summer.

Speaking to an audience of law professors, Sotomayor said that she was “shell-shocked” and “deeply sad” with the court’s decision on abortion’s right at the end of its term in June, according to Reuters. 

“I did have a sense of despair about the direction my court was going,” Sotomayor said via video at the Association of American Law Schools’ (AALS) annual meeting in San Diego, Calif.

She did not explicitly mention the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, or the draft opinion that was leaked into publicly before the Supreme Court’s eventual decision on the matter. 

Sotomayor, who was appointed to serve on the court by then-President Obama in 2009, added that she’ll continue to be a voice of dissent on the majority conservative court, and was optimistic the direction of the court will change in the future.

“It’s not an option to fall into despair,” Sotomayor said. “I have to get up and keep fighting.”

Sotomayor’s remarks come at the start of a new session of the Supreme Court, in which the court may issue transformative rulings rule on affirmative action, voting rights and businesses refusing service for LGBTQ people.

During oral arguments of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health in December 2021, Sotomayor suggested the court would not  “survive the stench” if they were to uphold the controversial 15-week abortion ban ruling. 

“Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?” Sotomayor asked an attorney who backed the Mississippi law. “I don’t see how it is possible.”

The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade brought an end to 50 years of women having a constitutional right to abortion, effectively leaving the issue to states.

Multiple GOP-led states quickly implemented their own abortion bans and restrictions, including a number of “trigger laws” that took effect soon after Roe was overturned.

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