Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor told daytime television viewers that overturning long-standing precedents carries a cost that extends beyond any single case, urging Americans to read both majority opinions and dissents to understand the stakes.
Speaking Tuesday on the ABC program "The View," Sotomayor directly tied recent rulings, including the court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade, to broader consequences for public confidence in the judiciary and for the rights people expect to hold. "The price we pay is whatever is happening today, as I indicated, is going to affect a lot of people. But it affects your future," she said.
Sotomayor was responding to a question from co-host Sunny Hostin about why some recent decisions are dangerous to freedoms and what ordinary Americans should take away from the court’s trajectory. She urged viewers to read every opinion from the Court — both the majority and the dissent — "to become more informed citizens." She emphasized that what is permitted in one era can set a precedent for different and potentially broader actions in the future.
"It’ll be a different group of people. It’ll be a different situation. But once we have approved it, it sets a precedent that can be, in your judgment ... Really bad. And that’s what’s at risk, is in each time we change precedent, we are changing the contours of a right that people thought they had," Sotomayor said on the show.
Co-host Sara Haines asked Sotomayor what surprised her most about serving on the Court. Sotomayor said the complexity of the cases made the most lasting impression, and that a majority opinion can sound convincing because the justices who sign on must believe it. "Read the dissent. Read the other side, and it will tell you how hard these questions are. Don’t ever think there’s a simple answer. There isn’t," she said.
Sotomayor also said there is "no winning" in many court cases, explaining that one side’s victory often leaves the other side with losses to rights or claims they valued. "This is always a price we pay in court cases," she said.
Sotomayor, nominated by President Barack Obama in 2009, is one of three current justices appointed by Democratic presidents, alongside Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The remarks on "The View" come in the wake of several high-profile Supreme Court decisions and amid ongoing public debate about the court’s role and its future direction.
Before President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, some Democrats discussed whether sitting liberal justices should consider retirement to avoid the possibility of a replacement by a Republican president. The issue resurfaced after the 2020 term and other subsequent rulings that shifted long-standing jurisprudence.
Sotomayor’s televised appeal to read both majority and dissenting opinions reflects a broader effort by some justices and legal scholars to encourage public engagement with the Court’s reasoning. Supporters of that view say it can foster a more informed electorate and a better understanding of how decisions are reached and why they may be contested.
The Dobbs ruling, decided in 2022, remains the most prominent example cited by Sotomayor and others who warn that overturning precedent can reshape rights and public expectations. Critics of that decision and similar rulings argue such shifts can undermine trust in the Court and alter policy outcomes on issues ranging from reproductive health to immigration enforcement.
On "The View," Sotomayor did not offer recommendations about specific cases pending before the Court. She framed her comments as a call for civic engagement and careful attention to judicial opinions, urging citizens to consider both majority rationales and dissenting views when evaluating the Court’s work.
