After standing ovation for blistering dissent, Sotomayor urges people to read both sides [View all]

Source: USA Today

Sept. 10, 2025, 6:07 a.m. ET


WASHINGTON – Read the opinions for yourself. That’s the message Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor had Sept. 10 for viewers of the “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” the day after her blistering response to her conservative colleagues’ latest ruling siding with the Trump administration.

The majority said the administration can for now resume the indiscriminate immigration-related stops in southern California that sparked protests and charges of racial profiling. In her dissent for the court’s three liberals, Sotomayor said the majority’s decision “is yet an­other grave misuse of our emergency docket.”

“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” wrote Sotomayor, the first Latina on the court. “Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent."

After Colbert read that portion of her 21-page pushback to his studio audience, they gave Sotomayor a standing ovation. “I have the whole thing if you’d like to read it right now,” the liberal host told Sotomayor. The justice had a better idea. “I want you to read it, and I want you to read the concurring opinion,” she said. “Too many people hear what a Supreme Court decision is, and they come to immediate conclusions based on what only their personal feelings are. You shouldn’t do that.”

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/09/10/supreme-court-sotomayor-dissent-stephen-colbert/86069764007/