Sunny Hostin, a co-host of ABC’s daytime talk show The View, said she was "scared" by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s response when asked whether former President Donald Trump could seek a third term, after Sotomayor suggested the constitutional question has not been tested in court.
Hostin made the remark Tuesday on The View: Behind the Table podcast after Sotomayor’s appearance on The View, where the justice addressed a question about the 22nd Amendment’s bar on a third presidential term. Sotomayor told the hosts, "The Constitution is settled law. No one has tried to challenge that. Until somebody tries, you don’t know. So, it’s not settled because we don’t have a court case about that issue. But it is in the Constitution, and one should understand that there’s nothing that is the greater law in the United States than the Constitution of the United States."
On the podcast, Hostin said Sotomayor’s caveat that the 22nd Amendment had "not been tested" and that the question remained theoretical unnerved her. "It scared me," Hostin said. Co-host Joy Behar added during the conversation that she viewed Trump as someone who does not always follow the rules and suggested that actions not previously seen could challenge constitutional norms.
The exchange on The View followed a question from co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin on the program, who asked whether the 22nd Amendment — ratified in 1951 to limit presidents to two terms — should be considered "settled law." Griffin said she believed the Republican Party would likely support Trump if he sought another term. Sotomayor’s response focused on the absence of a legal case testing the amendment’s application to a scenario in which a former two-term president sought office again.
Former President Trump has in recent months publicly teased the idea of a third White House bid. In a March 2025 phone interview with NBC News, Trump said he was "not joking" about the possibility and added, "A lot of people want me to do it," while also saying it was "very early in the administration." The 22nd Amendment, which bars election of a person to the presidency more than twice, has not been litigated in a case directly addressing whether a former two-term president could seek another term under circumstances flagged by Trump.
Legal scholars note that the text of the 22nd Amendment is explicit in limiting election to the presidency to two terms. Court challenges to constitutional provisions typically arise when an individual takes an action that prompts a legal dispute; Sotomayor’s comment acknowledged that, absent such a challenge, some questions about how courts would resolve novel scenarios remain hypothetical.
Sotomayor appeared on The View for a broader discussion that included questions about the role of the Constitution as the nation’s supreme law. Hostin and her co-hosts framed the justice’s comments within concerns about adherence to constitutional limits and the stability of democratic norms. No court challenge to the 22nd Amendment over a third-term bid has been filed publicly as of the appearance and subsequent podcast comments.
The conversation on The View and Hostin’s podcast remarks underscore ongoing public and legal interest in how constitutional provisions would operate if tested in new political circumstances. Legal analysts say any definitive resolution would most likely come through litigation that directly presents the question to the federal courts.