Sotomayor admits some Supreme Court decisions have driven her to tears

Justice Sonia Sotomayor reflected Friday on her time on the Supreme Court, admitting that some of the high court’s decisions have driven her to tears.

“There are days that I’ve come to my office after an announcement of a case and closed my door and cried,” Sotomayor said Friday at an event honoring her at Harvard University.

“There have been those days. And there likely will be more,” she added in the speech, per the The New York Times.

The Harvard event was held as the Supreme Court heads toward the last several weeks of the term. The court is expected to deliver opinions on several high-profile cases, including one determining whether former President Trump should be immune from prosecution for the charges against him for allegedly working to overturn the 2020 election, and another concerning the legality of abortion pills such as mifepristone.

Sotomayor, the most senior liberal justice on the conservative-leaning Supreme Court, did not discuss a specific case in her speech.

She was appointed to the nation’s highest court in 2009 under the nomination of former President Obama. Since then, she said she has had disagreements with fellow justices.

“Disagreeing about ideas doesn’t make another human being evil or bad,” she said, noting that it is difficult.

She also admitted that the disagreements have been emotional, but the Times noted that her tone was optimistic even if she voiced frustration.

“There are moments when I’m deeply, deeply sad,” Sotomayor said. “There are moments when, yes, even I feel desperation.”

“We all do. But you have to own it, you have to accept it, you have to shed the tears and then you have to wipe them and get up,” the justice added.