Sotomayor criticizes Kavanaugh over ICE stops ruling

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor publicly criticized her colleague Brett Kavanaugh this week for his concurring opinion in a major immigration enforcement case, saying his track record left him incapable of understanding the real-world consequences of even brief detentions for working-class Americans.

Speaking at an event hosted by the University of Kansas Law School on Tuesday, Justice Sotomayor addressed the court’s divided decision in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, a September 2025 shadow ruling that allowed the Trump administration to resume immigration controls in the Los Angeles area.

“I had a colleague in this case who wrote, you know, these are just temporary stops,” she said, referring to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s agreement. “This is coming from a man whose parents were professionals. And who probably doesn’t know anyone who works hourly.”

Although she did not explicitly name Mr. Kavanaugh, the reference was unmistakable. In his agreement, Mr. Kavanaugh said legal residents’ encounters with immigration officials are “generally brief” and those affected “are promptly released.” Mr. Kavanaugh also wrote that race or ethnicity could be “a relevant factor” in determining reasonable suspicion when considered with other factors — and not as a stand-alone basis for a stop.

Justice Sotomayor rejected that presentation, calling it out of touch with the financial reality faced by hourly workers. “Those hours that they took you away, no one pays that person,” she told the crowd. “And that makes a difference between a meal for him and his kids that night and maybe just a cold dinner.”

The decision in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo was issued on September 8, 2025, through the court’s shadow docket – without oral argument, without briefing on the merits, and without public warning. The order was a single sentence. Justice Kavanaugh filed a concurring opinion; Justice Sotomayor filed a dissent joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson.

The district court’s underlying order prohibited immigration agents from detaining people based solely on four factors: apparent race or ethnicity, speaking Spanish or accented English, presence at certain locations such as car washes or bus stops, and the type of job they appeared to have. The High Court’s phantom stay lifted that ban pending appeal.

Critics began calling the resulting enforcement practice “Kavanaugh arrests” — a term that became widespread after the ruling, linking Mr. Kavanaugh’s name to the detentions. In her dissent at the time, Justice Sotomayor was blunt. “We should not have to live in a country where the government can arrest anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to have a low-wage job,” she wrote, according to USA Today. “Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I disagree. »

Tuesday’s public remarks were particularly aimed at Justice Sotomayor. Slate reported that she typically praises colleagues across ideological lines at public events and has previously spoken warmly of Justice Clarence Thomas. His decision to highlight Mr. Kavanaugh’s opinion — even without naming him — came as a new legal challenge to the controls was filed in New York.

Justice Sotomayor said her September dissent was not a personal or ethnic grievance but a defense of established precedent. “I wasn’t speaking as a Latino judge,” she said Tuesday. “I was talking about a judge who respects precedent. And I was explaining why that precedent is violated.”

She also spoke about her perspective as the first Latina to serve on the court. “Life experiences teach you to think more broadly and see things that others can’t see,” she said. “And when I have a moment where I can express it on behalf of people who have no other voice, then I receive a very rare privilege.”

Justice Sotomayor, 71, was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2009. A native of the Spanish-speaking Bronx, she was born to working-class Puerto Rican parents. Mr. Kavanaugh attended the all-boys preparatory school at Georgetown before earning his undergraduate and law degrees at Yale. He was confirmed to the Supreme Court in 2018.