{"id":112773,"date":"2025-03-31T11:03:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T19:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/03\/31\/justice-sotomayors-optimism-for-the-rule-of-law-under-trump-only-lasted-a-month\/"},"modified":"2025-03-31T11:03:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T19:03:17","slug":"justice-sotomayors-optimism-for-the-rule-of-law-under-trump-only-lasted-a-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/03\/31\/justice-sotomayors-optimism-for-the-rule-of-law-under-trump-only-lasted-a-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Sotomayor\u2019s Optimism For The Rule of Law Under Trump Only Lasted A Month"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Photo by ERIN SCHAFF\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last month, Justice Sonia Sotomayor was pretty confident in the soft power that courts would be able to deploy as a check against the Trump administration. Things might look bad right now, but it\u2019s not like the administration would just openly defy<\/em> court orders, right? As it turns out, yes, that imminently predictable set of circumstances has come to be<\/a>. And as cathartic as it might feel to go on a \u201cwe told you so\u201d or wallowing tirade, the right thing to do would be updating our read on the zeitgeist and acting accordingly. Thankfully, Sotomayor is leaning in to the right response. During an event held at the school that gave the biggest (religious) middle finger to Trump\u2019s administration so far<\/a>, Sotomayor updated the audience on her faith in the rule of law being the thing that keeps us afloat in these troubling waters. From CNN<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\u201cOne of the things that\u2019s troubling so many right now is many of the standards that are being changed \u2026 were norms that governed officials into what was right and wrong,\u201d Sotomayor told an audience at Georgetown University.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cOnce norms are broken then you\u2019re shaking some of the foundation of the rule of law,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Unexpectedly, she placed some of the fault on law schools:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\u201cThe fact that some of our public leaders are lawyers advocating or making statements challenging the rule of law tells me that fundamentally our law schools are failing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is not the time to sneak diss, Sotomayor; name names! I jest \u2014 I understand why a mind toward avoiding the appearance of impropriety would avoid naming names. That said, I\u2019m not bound by that expectation and, even if this wasn\u2019t who she had in mind when she said it, it\u2019s hard to deny that the boot would fit on JD Vance.<\/p>\n

Let it be known, I am a firm believer in the fact<\/em> that it is always morally good to punch up at Yale Law. But I wouldn\u2019t blame Yale for Vance\u2019s public shortcomings any more than I would blame the Pope for Vance not understanding Jesus\u2019s message. Three reasons. First, the Pope already directly addressed Vance\u2019s bad religion<\/a>. Second, some of Vance\u2019s most mind-boggling claims \u2014 the Judiciary having no authority to regulate the Executive\u2019s \u201clegitimate\u201d powers for example \u2014 may stem from Yale doing a good job at educating one of its students. Granted the justification would be Unitary Executive Theory, a fringe assessment of constitutional authority coming out of Yale<\/a>, but you can\u2019t really fault school for teaching fringe theory when all should be fair game in the marketplace of ideas. And third, barring the UET explanation above, Yale isn\u2019t to blame if Vance is a gutless power addict who was willing to call Trump idiot Hitler at one point and be his right hand man the next<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Blaming law school aside, she made the argument that once we lose our legal norms, we lose the rule of law completely. As sad as it is to see the optimistic glow drain from a top jurist\u2019s eyes, we need levelheaded judges who are acutely aware of the gravitas that their decisions hold, especially when they\u2019re sitting at the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Justice Sonia Sotomayor Says She\u2019s Worried About Declining Standards And Broken Norms<\/a> [CNN]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Sonia Sotomayor Wildly Out Of Touch With Trump\u2019s America<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump White House Tests Supreme Court Loyalty With Increasingly Crackpot Legal Arguments<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s<\/a>. \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim,\u00a0a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor<\/a>, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com<\/a>\u00a0and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Justice Sotomayor\u2019s Optimism For The Rule of Law Under Trump Only Lasted A Month<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo by ERIN SCHAFF\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last month, Justice Sonia Sotomayor was pretty confident in the soft power that courts would be able to deploy as a check against the Trump administration. Things might look bad right now, but it\u2019s not like the administration would just openly defy<\/em> court orders, right? As it turns out, yes, that imminently predictable set of circumstances has come to be<\/a>. And as cathartic as it might feel to go on a \u201cwe told you so\u201d or wallowing tirade, the right thing to do would be updating our read on the zeitgeist and acting accordingly. Thankfully, Sotomayor is leaning in to the right response. During an event held at the school that gave the biggest (religious) middle finger to Trump\u2019s administration so far<\/a>, Sotomayor updated the audience on her faith in the rule of law being the thing that keeps us afloat in these troubling waters. From CNN<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\u201cOne of the things that\u2019s troubling so many right now is many of the standards that are being changed \u2026 were norms that governed officials into what was right and wrong,\u201d Sotomayor told an audience at Georgetown University.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cOnce norms are broken then you\u2019re shaking some of the foundation of the rule of law,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Unexpectedly, she placed some of the fault on law schools:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\u201cThe fact that some of our public leaders are lawyers advocating or making statements challenging the rule of law tells me that fundamentally our law schools are failing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is not the time to sneak diss, Sotomayor; name names! I jest \u2014 I understand why a mind toward avoiding the appearance of impropriety would avoid naming names. That said, I\u2019m not bound by that expectation and, even if this wasn\u2019t who she had in mind when she said it, it\u2019s hard to deny that the boot would fit on JD Vance.<\/p>\n

Let it be known, I am a firm believer in the fact<\/em> that it is always morally good to punch up at Yale Law. But I wouldn\u2019t blame Yale for Vance\u2019s public shortcomings any more than I would blame the Pope for Vance not understanding Jesus\u2019s message. Three reasons. First, the Pope already directly addressed Vance\u2019s bad religion<\/a>. Second, some of Vance\u2019s most mind-boggling claims \u2014 the Judiciary having no authority to regulate the Executive\u2019s \u201clegitimate\u201d powers for example \u2014 may stem from Yale doing a good job at educating one of its students. Granted the justification would be Unitary Executive Theory, a fringe assessment of constitutional authority coming out of Yale<\/a>, but you can\u2019t really fault school for teaching fringe theory when all should be fair game in the marketplace of ideas. And third, barring the UET explanation above, Yale isn\u2019t to blame if Vance is a gutless power addict who was willing to call Trump idiot Hitler at one point and be his right hand man the next<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Blaming law school aside, she made the argument that once we lose our legal norms, we lose the rule of law completely. As sad as it is to see the optimistic glow drain from a top jurist\u2019s eyes, we need levelheaded judges who are acutely aware of the gravitas that their decisions hold, especially when they\u2019re sitting at the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Justice Sonia Sotomayor Says She\u2019s Worried About Declining Standards And Broken Norms<\/a> [CNN]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Sonia Sotomayor Wildly Out Of Touch With Trump\u2019s America<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump White House Tests Supreme Court Loyalty With Increasingly Crackpot Legal Arguments<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s<\/a>. \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim,\u00a0a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor<\/a>, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u00a0and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo by ERIN SCHAFF\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images) Last month, Justice Sonia Sotomayor was pretty confident in the soft power that courts would be able to deploy as a check against the Trump administration. Things might look bad right now, but it\u2019s not like the administration would just openly defy court orders, right? As it turns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":112733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-6-qwjiI6.png?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}