USA · 15 April, 2026 · 1 min read
Justice Sonia Sotomayor Apologizes to Brett Kavanaugh for Hurtful Immigration Comments
Sotomayor publicly apologized for hurtful comments about Kavanaugh at a law school event. She called her remarks inappropriate and apologized to her colleague Justice Kavanaugh.
Tone and framing of the apology.
6 of 8 outlets skipped it: the immigration stops were reported as occurring in the Los Angeles area (or Los Angeles) in several outlets.
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PPolitico
“Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor apologized Wednesday for suggesting Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s upbringing left him insensitive to day laborers being targeted by the Trump administration for immigration enforcement.”Read the original ↗
NBC News
“Liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued an unusual apology Wednesday for critical remarks she made about the upbringing of one of her conservative colleagues, Justice Brett Kavanaugh.”Read the original ↗
Shows a difference in how outlets describe the nature of the apology—Politico framing it as a straightforward apology for a swipe, NBC highlighting the remark as an unusually notable public moment.
Sotomayor's Apology
Sotomayor issued a rare public apology to Kavanaugh for remarks she made at the University of Kansas Law School. She had said, This is from a man whose parents were professionals. She apologized in a statement: I regret my hurtful comments.
The apology came about a week after she criticized Kavanaugh’s immigration stop opinion. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority, and Sotomayor was one of the three liberal dissenters.
The Immigration Stops Case
The apology stemmed from Sotomayor's criticism of Kavanaugh's concurring opinion in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo.
Kavanaugh wrote that these are only temporary stops and individuals may promptly go free once they prove legal status.
Sotomayor countered that those hours that they took you away, nobody’s paying that person.
The legal challenge came after the Trump administration ramped up immigration raids across California.
The court blocked a lower court ruling that said federal agents need reasonable suspicion.
Court Relations and Reactions
Sotomayor's comments exposed cracks in the court's usual depiction of collegiality. She told law students she has a civil relationship with virtually all of her fellow justices. Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas lamented the fraying of relations on the court.
Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also heavily criticized the court’s handling of cases involving the Trump administration. The Supreme Court was gearing up to issue some of the biggest rulings of its current term.