Justice Sonia Sotomayor sent a strong reminder Friday that she is not a justice looking to carve out compromises with a conservative majority.
She knows she will be in dissent in cases that most capture the public’s attention for the foreseeable future. Still, she writes to illuminate her colleague’s missteps with the hope that someday her dissents will become majority opinions. On Friday, after the court allowed Texas’ ban on abortion after six weeks — a law that is in direct conflict with Roe v. Wade — to remain in place, she was straightforward. “The impact,” she wrote, “is catastrophic.” At 67, Sotomayor, President Barack Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee, has carved out her place in the bench. Sometimes liberals Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer appear to be influencing the majority by trying to narrow a conservative holding. Sotomayor, in contrast, does not miss a chance to send up a flare. She may be permanently in the minority, but she’s writing for the future. Indeed when the court issued its order in the Texas case Friday — not long after the Justice Department had filed its final briefs — it was clear the justices had already discussed next steps as they deal with a law that has placed them in the center of the political dialogue.
