Overview
- Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a court-issued statement Wednesday, said her prior public remarks were inappropriate and confirmed she apologized to Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
- Her apology follows April 7 comments at the University of Kansas Law School that were widely understood to refer to Kavanaugh and to question his grasp of hourly workers’ lives.
- The dispute centers on a September 2025 emergency stay that let ICE resume interior stops around Los Angeles, with Kavanaugh’s solo concurrence calling such encounters typically brief and allowing apparent ethnicity as a relevant factor alongside others.
- Sotomayor has argued even short detentions can cost hourly workers wages and stability, while advocacy groups say the encounters are longer and more intrusive than described and have labeled them “Kavanaugh stops.”
- Public apologies between justices are uncommon, Kavanaugh has not responded publicly, and the episode renews scrutiny of emergency orders as liberal justices, including Ketanji Brown Jackson this week, question the shadow docket’s real-world effects.