Leftists want to push Sonia Sotomayor off the Supreme Court

There are two views of the Constitution and the Supreme Court’s role in interpreting it. One view is that the Constitution means what it says and can be changed only through the document’s explicit amendment process. The other view is that the Constitution means whatever the left wants it to say. That view means leftists on the Supreme Court, if they’re a majority, have a free hand to amend the Constitution unilaterally and to control both Congress and the White House. The latter view has been remarkably successful in remaking (and damaging) America. Sonia Sotomayor has always been a stalwart member of the leftist cadre, but now, with a Trump presidency possible, many leftists have decided that it’s time for her to go.

Sotomayor made the news a few days ago when she admitted in an interview that she is struggling with those justices who believe that the Constitution, like any contract, must be interpreted, first, according to its explicit terms and, second, according to the signatories’ understanding and intentions. Well, that’s not exactly what she said, but I think it’s what she meant:

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Monday she feels daily “frustration” as conservative justices move the country to the ideological right.

In an appearance at the University of California, Berkely School of Law, Sotomayor was asked how she copes with the consistently conservative rulings from the court.

“Every loss truly traumatizes me,” but “I get up the next morning,” she said in response to the question, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. The crowd — about 1,300 students — applauded.

In her remarks, she criticized her “originalist colleagues” whom she said have come up with “new ways to interpret the Constitution,” changing rulings “that some of us believed were well established,” the Chronicle reported.

That last paragraph perfectly sums up the intellectual dishonesty of leftist justices. If one takes her literally, Sotomayor would have sided with Plessy v. Ferguson, the famous 1896 case that articulated the “separate but equal” doctrine, because it was “well established” rather than supporting 1954’s Brown v. Board of Education, which ended that Supreme Court idea.

Image: Sonia Sotomayor. YouTube screen grab.

But, of course, that’s not what Sotomayor meant at all. What she meant is that “the Constitution means whatever I want it to mean. If I like what it says, I’ll stick with it. If I don’t, I’ll stick with perverted analyses, whether already existing or soon to be written.”

Sotomayor is the perfect Democrat party Supreme Court justice.

However, she’s also an old (70 years) Supreme Court justice who has Type I diabetes. With the specter of Donald Trump’s return hovering over the election and the memory of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s refusal to retire, which gave Trump the ability to fill her seat, there’s a movement afoot to get Sotomayor off the Supreme Court before it’s too late. Writes Jonathan Turley:

Some activists and journalists are beginning to nudge Sotomayor to leave the Court in order to be replaced by a younger jurist, much as was done to Justice Stephen Breyer in 2021 and 2022.

On CNN, journalist Josh Barro bluntly wondered why Sotomayor remains on the bench when younger jurists could be brought on to guarantee a liberal vote for years to come. He indicated that many liberals are frustrated with her for not stepping down: “I find it a little bit surprising, given what Justice Sotomayor describes there about the stakes of what is happening before the Supreme Court, that she’s not retired. She’s 69 years old, she’s been on the court for 15 years.”

[snip]

Many clearly would like to see her lessen [a workload about which she complained] by following the pattern of former liberal colleague, Justice Breyer, who retired in 2022. Demand Justice, a liberal group that has pushed court–packing as a solution to the Court’s conservative majority,  drove a billboard truck through the streets of Washington with slogans like “Breyer, retire. Don’t risk your legacy.”

If you were to ask me, I would say to Sotomayor, “Don’t listen to the naysayers. Stay on the bench. Ginsburg was way older than you are. Moreover, if Trump is elected, millions of Democrats across America will be praying for your good health and long life every single day, which can only be seen as a net positive.” I’d keep quiet about the fact that Democrats don’t believe in the power of prayer.