索尼娅·索托马约尔法官在最高法院意见季节的疯狂拥挤中，她罕见地公开露面，公开赞扬了她的同事克拉伦斯·托马斯法官并在周四向进步人士发表了鼓舞人心的讲话，因为这个四面楚歌的机构准备发布由最高法院保守派多数推动的重大裁决。
“如果它没有杀死我，它会让我变得更强。这就是逆境对你的影响，”乐观的索托马约尔在华盛顿举行的美国宪法协会会议上对观众说，他是最高法院的三名自由派法官之一。
在接下来的日子里，法庭会发表意见堕胎、持枪权、移民、学校祈祷和气候政策。大法官没有直接处理任何悬而未决的案件，或前所未有的泄露意见草案，由大法官塞缪尔阿利托上个月表明，保守党多数人准备推翻罗伊诉韦德案。
然而，索托马约尔确实讨论了臭名昭著和不公正的法院判决如何在后来得到纠正，他引用了1857年的德雷德·斯科特案件，该案件认为被奴役或自由的美国黑人不能成为公民。她指出，这花了八年时间和一场内战来纠正，但最终被推翻。
索托马约尔说:“我们必须继续相信法院系统、我们的政府系统、我们的能力——我希望不是通过战争——而是通过宪法修正案、改变立法、进行游说、每天继续战斗，以重新赢得公众对我们作为一个法院、一个机构没有迷失方向的信心。”。
“我们作为一个社会，已经采取了一些可能不同意的措施。但如果我们不同意，我们将继续为伸张正义而斗争，”她说。
阿利托，在他的意见草案在堕胎案中，他引用斯科特案来证明推翻罗伊案是正确的，认为1973年具有里程碑意义的意见在他看来也是从一开始就被错误地决定了。
索托马约尔的出现是最高法院自由派成员自1980年以来的首次亮相泄露的意见被泄露了这一备受珍视的信任准则颠覆了法院的运作，并给法官们带来了新的安全威胁，包括一起涉嫌暗杀法官的事件布雷特·卡瓦诺。
她的评论也是在公众评论之后首席大法官约翰·罗伯茨和克拉伦斯·托马斯大法官，他们都暗示，在最近的事件中，大法官之间以及与他们的书记员之间的关系已经严重恶化。
“当你失去这种信任时，尤其是在我所在的机构中，它会从根本上改变这个机构，”托马斯在5月的一次会议上说。“你开始回头看。这就像一种不忠，你可以解释它，但你不能撤销它。”
索托马约尔对托马斯大法官大加赞赏。托马斯因其在有争议案件中的立场以及其妻子涉嫌参与其中而受到民主党人和进步法律学者的尖锐批评。吉尼·托马斯，为了推翻2020年的选举。
托马斯是唯一对法院拒绝受理此案的决定持异议的法官之一几起与选举有关的案件。
索托马约尔说，“我怀疑我与他的分歧可能超过了与任何其他法官的分歧，我们没有比其他任何人更多地加入彼此的意见，”然而，“他是一个深深关心法院这个机构，关心在那里工作的人……”
索托马约尔继续说:“托马斯有着“非常不同的人生哲学”，但我认为我们对人和对人的友善有着共同的理解。这就是为什么我可以和他成为朋友，并继续我们在案件中意见分歧的日常斗争。”
尽管许多民主党人和进步活动人士被压抑的方向最高法院6比3的保守多数——有些人要求法院规模和范围的巨大变化-索托马约尔敦促人们在失望面前保持乐观和文明。
“你可以躺下，让卡车从你身上碾过。或者，你可以...站起来，筑起路障，”她告诉人群。“我不是指字面上的意思，我是指比喻....听着，有时候我会气馁。有些时候我非常非常失望。是的，有时候我会停下来说，‘这还值得吗?’每次我这么做的时候，我都会舔舔伤口。有时候我会哭。然后我说，好吧-我们打吧。"
Justice Sotomayor gives pep talk to progressives while praising Clarence Thomas
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a rare public appearance during the frenzied crush of Supreme Court opinion season, delivered public praise of her colleagueJustice Clarence Thomasand gave a pep talk to progressives Thursday as the embattled institution prepares to issue major rulings driven by the court's conservative majority.
"If it doesn't kill me, it makes me stronger. That is what adversity does to you," an upbeat Sotomayor, one of the court's three liberal justices, told an audience at the American Constitution Society conference in Washington.
In the coming days, the courtwill issue opinionson abortion, gun rights, immigration, school prayer and climate policy. The justice did not directly address any of the pending cases, or an unprecedented leaked draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito last month that showed the conservativemajority ready to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Sotomayor did, however, discuss how infamous and unjust court decisions can later be corrected, citing the Dred Scott case of 1857, which held that enslaved or free black Americans could not be citizens. She noted that it took eight years and a Civil War to rectify, but that ultimately it was overturned.
"We have to have continuing faith in the court system, in our system of government, in our ability -- I hope not through war -- but through constitutional amendment, to change in legislation, towards lobbying, towards continuing the battle each day to regain the public's confidence that we as a court, as an institution have not lost our way," Sotomayor said.
"We as a society, have taken steps some may disagree with. But if we disagree, we will continue to battle to do justice," she said.
Alito, in hisdraft opinionin the abortion case, cited the Scott case to justify overturning Roe, arguing that the 1973 landmark opinion was similarly, in his view, wrongly decided from the start.
Sotomayor's appearance was the first by a member of the court's liberal wing sincethe leaked opinion breacheda cherished code of trust, upended court operations and stirred new security threats to the justices, including an alleged assassination attempt on JusticeBrett Kavanaugh.
Her remarks also followed public comments byChief Justice John Robertsand Justice Clarence Thomas last month, each of whom suggested relations among justices and with their clerks have significantly deteriorated amid recent events.
"When you lose that trust, especially in the institution that I'm in, it changes the institution fundamentally,"Thomas said at a conference in May."You begin to look over your shoulder. It's like kind of an infidelity that you can explain it, but you can't undo it."
Sotomayor heaped praise on Justice Thomas -- who has been sharply criticized by Democrats and progressive legal scholars for his positions in controversial cases and for the alleged involvement of his wife,Ginni Thomas,in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Thomas was one of the only justices to dissent from the court's decision to decline to take upseveral election-related cases.
"I suspect I have probably disagreed with him more than with any other justice, that we have not joined each other's opinions more than anybody else," Sotomayor said, and yet "he is a man who cares deeply about the court as an institution, about the people who work there..."
Thomas has a "very different philosophy of life," Sotomayor continued, "but I think we share a common understanding about people and kindness towards them. That's why I can be friends with him and still continue our daily battle over our difference of opinions in cases."
While many Democrats and progressive activists have beendowntrodden about the directionof the Supreme Court with a 6-3 conservative majority -- some are demandingdramatic changes to the size and scope of the court-- Sotomayor urged optimism and civility in the face of disappointment.
"You can lie down and let the truck run you over. Or, you can...get up and build the barricades," she told the crowd. "I don't mean this literally, I mean it figuratively....Look, there are days I get discouraged. There are moments where I am deeply, deeply disappointed. And yes, there have been moments where I've stopped and said, 'Is this worth it anymore?' And every time I do that, I lick my wounds for a while. Sometimes I cry. And then I say, OK -- let's fight."
