Sonia Sotomayor Says She Apologized To Brett Kavanaugh for ‘Hurtful Comments’ 

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she apologized to Justice Brett Kavanaugh for some remarks she made last week.

Sotomayor attended an event at the University of Kansas Law School on April 8, where she referenced a ruling by the Supreme Court in September. In that case, the Trump administration filed an emergency petition seeking to overturn a district court ruling that prohibited federal immigration agents from detaining and questioning people based on their race, ethnicity, language, or presence at a particular location. The high court sided with the Trump administration, with the three liberals dissenting. Kavanaugh offered the lone explanation for the ruling among the conservatives on the court.

“Moreover, as for stops of those individuals who are legally in the country, the questioning in those circumstances is typically brief, and those individuals may promptly go free after making clear to the immigration officers that they are U. S. citizens or otherwise legally in the United States,” he wrote in a concurrence that was widely derided by liberals, who referred to such detentions as “Kavanaugh Stops.”

“I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops,” Sotomayor said at last week’s event. “This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.”

Kavanaugh’s father was a lawyer and the head of a trade association. His mother was a schoolteacher and later a judge.

In a statement to several media outlets on Wednesday, Sotomayor said he regretted her remarks and that she apologized to her colleague.

“I made remarks that were inappropriate,” Sotomayor said in the statement. “I regret my hurtful comments. I have apologized to my colleague.”

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