Sotomayor hopes immunity ruling gets overturned, says court did 'crazy things'

Sotomayor made the remarks Saturday during a civics education talk at George Washington's Mount Vernon estate, according to The Hill. "I dissent a lot. I'm hoping that the court will take back some of the crazy things that it's done. I'm only joking — maybe not," she said, before adding: "There's some opinions that I hope in my lifetime will get overturned. The immunity case is one of them."

The 2024 ruling split the court 6-3 and held that core presidential powers are immune from criminal prosecution. Sotomayor dissented alongside fellow liberal justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, writing at the time that the decision turned President Donald Trump and his successors into a "king above the law."

She also pointed to voter turnout at the multi-day celebration of the country's 250th anniversary. "I tell people all the time, there's no excuse for not voting. There just isn't. Apathy is not acceptable," she said. Sotomayor sits on the board of iCivics, the education group founded by the late Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and used the appearance to press the case for civics education.

On the broader state of democracy, Sotomayor said getting the U.S. back on an "even keel" would take "some hard work." She pointed to what she called "systemic changes" in the court's jurisprudence across many areas of law. "We'll settle down, too. Not quite sure when. But we will. And a new order will be established that people will begin to understand."