The Supreme Court gave conservatives reasons to celebrate this year after it overturned Roe v. Wade and also found that there is a constitutional right to carry a concealed weapon.
However, those decisions have led the Court’s liberal members to warn that many Americans no longer see the judicial body as being legitimate.
Justice Sotomayor says Court should “proceed with a great deal of caution”
According to the Washington Examiner, Justice Sonia Sotomayor expressed that view on Tuesday while speaking at an event sponsored by the Connecticut Forum.
“Justices have to proceed with a great deal of caution because people rely on the stability of the law in believing and having faith that the judicial system is not prone to politics,” she was quoted as saying.
Sotomayor’s remarks were made in reference to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case in which five of the Court’s six Republican appointees determined that the constitution does not protect abortion.
Sotomayor is not the only member of the Court’s liberal wing to make such statements, as the Examiner noted that fellow Obama appointee Elena Kagan put forward a similar theme while speaking in September at New York’s Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center.
Kagan argued that “judges create legitimacy problems for themselves when they don’t act like courts” but “instead stray into places that look like politics.”
Interestingly, conservatives have long argued that left-wing justices have made politically motivated ruling, with critics pointing out that abortion is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution.
Supreme Court hears arguments on affirmative action
Still, University of Texas School of Law professor Steve Vladeck recently asserted that it seems likely more Americans will come to view the judiciary as being politicized.
“The public perception that all of these 6-3 and 5-4 rulings just happen to break down the same ways that tend to favor Republicans or Democrats — even if there are principles behind those decisions, it doesn’t look good,” he said.
According to the Examiner, Vladeck offered that assessment while participating in a virtual panel hosted by the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library on Wednesday.
The Examiner also noted that earlier this month, the Supreme Court heard arguments on whether colleges can use racial preferences for affirmative action purposes. Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley told Fox News that he believes the practice will be deemed unconstitutional.