As the Trump administration continues to target law firms and defy the rule of law, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor had some rallying remarks for lawyers at an event in Washington.
Speaking Thursday at a meeting hosted by the American Bar Association, Sotomayor urged lawyers to steel themselves for difficult fights ahead. The Associated Press quoted her as saying:
Our job is to stand up for people who can’t do it themselves. And our job is to be the champion of lost causes. But right now, we can’t lose the battles we are facing. And we need trained and passionate and committed lawyers to fight this fight.
Sotomayor’s comments come at an incredibly fraught moment for the law profession. President Donald Trump has used his executive power to target multiple big law firms, many of which have acquiesced and struck deals with the administration. The federal government also is appearing to defy court orders in cases involving its immigration policies, as the president seeks to carry out mass deportations through legally questionable methods.
Supreme Court justices are not especially known for speaking their mind in public. But more than one of them have recently criticized attacks on the judiciary. At an event in Buffalo, New York, on Wednesday, Chief Justice John Roberts underscored the judiciary’s duty to “check the excesses of Congress or the executive.”
At a judicial conference last week in Puerto Rico, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson condemned the threats of physical violence and professional retaliation against judges, saying they undermine democracy. Like the other justices, she did not mention Trump by name.