Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a formal apology on Wednesday for remarks directed at colleague Brett Kavanaugh concerning a major immigration ruling.
In a statement released April 15, 2026, Sotomayor characterized her recent public criticisms as “inappropriate and hurtful,” marking a rare moment of public contrition between members of the nation’s highest court.
The friction stems from a speech Sotomayor delivered at the University of Kansas School of Law earlier this month. During the event, she targeted Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion in a September 2025 decision that allowed the resumption of indiscriminate immigration-related stops in Los Angeles.
That ruling, which drew sharp objections from the court’s three liberal justices, blocked a lower court’s requirement that federal agents possess “reasonable suspicion” before questioning individuals about their legal status.
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In her Kansas speech, Sotomayor specifically challenged Kavanaugh’s characterization of these encounters as “typically brief” and his observation that detained individuals “promptly go free.”
She suggested that Kavanaugh’s background as the son of professionals prevented him from understanding the financial reality of people who work by the hour and face lost wages even during short detentions.
The legal battle centered on a series of enforcement stops in Los Angeles that triggered mass protests across California.
Critics of the 2025 ruling argued that removing the “reasonable suspicion” requirement opened the door for racial profiling. Sotomayor’s comments in Kansas invoked the emotional weight of those protests and the economic vulnerability of those affected.
While the Supreme Court is known for internal disagreements, those tensions usually stay confined to written opinions.
Sotomayor’s decision to walk back her personal comments follows a year of heightened public scrutiny regarding the court’s internal dynamics and the real-world impact of its immigration jurisprudence. The statement did not elaborate on whether the two justices had met privately before the apology was made public.
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