Liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor says she sometimes cries over rulings made by conservative-majority court and hints more right-wing bombshells are to come

Liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor admits she sometimes finds herself in tears over the conservative-dominated Supreme Court’s rulings.

Sotomayor, 69, is one of three remaining Democratic-appointed justices on the court, joining Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Although it has always been in the minority on the court, the court has recently taken a more rightward turn under a 6-3 majority, including the repeal of Roe vs. Wade.

In a speech as she received an award at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute on Friday, she admitted that it sometimes brings her to tears.

“There are days when I would come to my office after a case announcement and close my door and cry,” she said.

But she followed this up by saying that the right-wing bombings will likely continue for the foreseeable future.

‘There have been days. And there will probably be more to come,” Sotomayor warned.

She did not specify which cases had made her cry, but admitted that there were intense feelings after certain verdicts.

‘There are moments when I am deeply, deeply sad. There are times when, yes, even I feel despair. We all do,” she said.

“But you have to own it, you have to accept it, you have to shed the tears and then you have to wipe them away and stand up,” Sotomayor added.

The oldest of the three Democratic-appointed justices, Sotomayor, has faced calls to retire to ensure Democrats will keep at least three justices on the court if Donald Trump wins in 2024.

The Atlantic published an op-ed in March written by journalist Josh Barro, calling on President Joe Biden and other Democrats to push the 69-year-old liberal judge to retire while the White House and Senate remain in Democratic hands.

Otherwise, Barro warned, Democrats risked expanding the 6-3 conservative majority to 7-2 if former President Donald Trump or Senate Republicans were successful.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in March that it would be Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s “personal decision” to leave the court.

Jean-Pierre was asked aboard Air Force One on Tuesday whether the president had considered asking Sotomayor, the nation’s first Latina judge, to bow out now.

“That’s a personal decision she has to make,” the press secretary replied. “That’s something she has to make. It is not something we create, lean on, or concern ourselves with. So I won’t even answer that question.’

Barro wrote that he feared identity politics would prevent Democrats from asking Sotomayor to walk out.

When she was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009, she made history as the nation’s first Latina judge.

But this leaves Democrats “concerned that publicly calling for the first Latina justice’s resignation would seem nonsensical or insensitive,” according to a Politico report that Barro cited in his op-ed.

“This is incredibly cowardly,” Barro wrote. “You’re afraid that control of the Court will remain completely out of reach for well over a generation, but because she’s Latina, you can’t get along with an official who jeopardizes your entire policy project, right?”

“If this is the way the Democratic Party operates, it deserves to lose,” Barro added.

Barro did the math, suggesting that if Sotomayor doesn’t retire this year, she will “make a bet that she will remain fit to serve until possibly age 78 or even age 82 or 84.”

‘[A]and she will force the entire Democratic Party to make a high-stakes bet with her,” he said.

Sotomayor has been open about some of her health issues, including the fact that she has diabetes and sometimes has to travel with a doctor.

Since the June 2021 Dobbs decision to overrule Roe v. Wade, Democrats have been unsure about the composition of the Supreme Court.

Former President Donald Trump was able to appoint three justices during his one term.

Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch replaced the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia after the seat was controversially kept open by then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, despite Obama now announcing Attorney General Merrick Garland as his pick.

Trump then selected Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring conservative Judge Anthony Kennedy.

Finally, in another controversial move, conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett was installed in the seat — just days before the 2020 presidential election — occupied by now-liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died of cancer on September 18.

Democrats were outraged by this move but could do nothing about it as Republicans controlled both the White House and the Senate.

“I thought the Democrats learned a lesson from the Ruth Bader Ginsburg episode about the importance of defending in a field where you don’t have the majority,” Barro said.

“All liberals need to show that this stubbornness is just a bunch of dissent and kitsch home decor.”