Sotomayor admits conservative Supreme Court colleagues frustrate her
Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor appears on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Sept. 9, 2025. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert/YouTube
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke candidly this week about the challenges of serving alongside her conservative colleagues, sharing both personal reflections and warnings about the Court’s recent direction during appearances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The View.
Promoting her new children’s book, Just Shine! How to Be a Better You, Sotomayor told Colbert that she makes a conscious effort to see the best in others—something she attributes to a lesson from her mother.
“She taught me to look for the best in people,” Sotomayor said. “That was the lesson that moment gave me, and it’s one I look for in my colleagues.”
While she acknowledged deep ideological divides on the bench, she emphasized the importance of maintaining collegiality, even when she disagrees strongly with the majority.
“I don’t agree with them much—at least not with the majority,” she said. “And they can be really frustrating. There are moments when I want to scurry out of the room. But I don’t. And what I look for to maintain our collegiality is the good in them.” She added that her mother was right to believe there’s good in “almost” everyone.
During a separate appearance on The View, Sotomayor addressed the broader implications of the Court’s decisions, particularly the overturning of Roe v. Wade and other rulings from the 6-3 conservative majority.
“The price we pay is whatever is happening today is going to affect a lot of people,” she said. “But it affects your future. It affects the conduct of leaders in the future, because what we permit today is not going to be duplicated exactly tomorrow. It’s going to be something different.”
She warned that frequent shifts in legal precedent could undermine rights that many Americans assumed were secure.
“Each time we change precedent, we are changing the contours of a right that people thought they had. Once you take that away, think of how much more is at risk later—not just in this situation,” she said.
Sotomayor, appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed in 2009, is one of only three justices on the current Supreme Court who were nominated by a Democrat.
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