Sonia Sotomayor assures liberal legal convention that 'the arc of the Universe bends towards justice'
United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Thursday spoke to the American Constitution Society convention and attempted to dissuade its progressive attendees from shedding confidence in the American justicial apparatus.
Her remarks come as the nation anxiously awaits several potentially precedent-shattering rulings by the Court's 6-3 right-wing majority.
"Sotomayor said that institutions like the Court are made up of human beings and that it is human nature to 'make mistakes.' One 'mistake' she raised was the 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford where the court found that Black people 'had no rights which the white man was bound to respect,' therefore denying them the rights and privileges of citizenship throughout the entire United States," according to a report in The Huffington Post.
“When we, as institutions, have made mistakes. Other parts of the branches [of government]” and “the people have worked to make change," said Sotomayor. “Dred Scott lost his 11-year battle for freedom," but "he won the war.”
Sotomayor shared her belief that Americans must never lose their "continuing faith in our court system" or "in our system of government," HuffPost noted.
"The system allows for constitutional amendments and legislation to address outcomes like Dred Scott," Sotomayor added. “I truly believe in the magical words, ‘the arc of the Universe bends towards justice.'"
Sotomayor's interview in its entirety is below:
\u201cLIVE NOW: Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor is speaking at the American Constitution Society national convention, where she will discuss reproductive rights in the U.S. https://t.co/aUq8ecBg5p\u201d— NowThis (@NowThis) 1655403426
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