Sotomayor Backs Justice Kavanaugh, Says Part of the Family

The Hill has more on the story:

Justice Sonia Sotomayor says her colleagues have welcomed the court's newest justice Brett Kavanaugh into the Supreme Court “family” after his confirmation process captivated the nation and further exposed its partisan divides.

"When you're charged with working together for most of the remainder of your life, you have to create a relationship," Sotomayor told CNN’s "Axe Files" in an interview released Saturday.

"The nine of us are now a family and we're a family with each of us our own burdens and our own obligations to others, but this is our work family, and it's just as important as our personal family," she said.

"We've probably spent more time with each other than most justices spend – who have spouses – with their spouses."

Kavanaugh’s confirmation process was thrown into tumult this fall after three women publicly accused him of sexual misconduct stemming from his time in high school and college in the early 1980s.

Kavanaugh vehemently denied the charges, with President Trump and GOP lawmakers vocally defending him. He was ultimately confirmed by the Senate in a 50-48 vote, with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) the only Democrat to support him.

The confirmation process sparked protests on Capitol Hill, with anti-Kavanaugh demonstrators confronting lawmakers in the hallways of the Capitol. Both parties argued the bitter confirmation fight would energize their base heading into the midterm elections earlier this month.

Sotomayor, who was appointed by former President Obama to the high court in 2009, told CNN she thinks the focus on Kavanaugh will now shift to the actions he takes on the court.

"It was Justice (Clarence) Thomas who tells me that when he first came to the Court, another justice approached him and said, 'I judge you by what you do here. Welcome.' And I repeated that story to Justice Kavanaugh when I first greeted him here," she said.

Thomas was accused of sexual harassment during his Supreme Court confirmation in 1991 and was also narrowly confirmed by the Senate.

The Washington Examiner added that Sotomayor said she will judge Justice Kavanaugh on what he does on the Supreme Court:

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that she will judge newly appointed Justice Brett Kavanaugh on what he does on the court and not what he did before he was confirmed. 

"It was Justice [Clarence] Thomas who tells me that when he first came to the Court, another justice approached him and said, 'I judge you by what you do here. Welcome.' And I repeated that story to Justice Kavanaugh when I first greeted him here," Sotomayor told CNN in an interview airing Saturday.

Thomas also was the center of controversy during his confirmation process when he was accused of sexual harassment following his nomination in 1991. 

"Conservative, liberal, those are political terms," Sotomayor continued. "Do I suspect that I might be dissenting a bit more? Possibly, but I still have two relatively new colleagues, one very new colleague, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. And we've agreed in quite a few cases, we've disagreed in a bunch, But you know, let's see." 

Sotomayor, the first Latina Supreme Court Justice, said that Kavanaugh was welcomed to the Supreme Court “family,” despite the controversy surrounding his confirmation. 

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"When you're charged with working together for most of the remainder of your life, you have to create a relationship," Sotomayor said. "The nine of us are now a family, and we're a family with each of us our own burdens and our own obligations to others, but this is our work family, and it's just as important as our personal family.” 

Sotomayor added that the justices spend more time with each other than they do with their spouses, for those of the justices who are married. 

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