Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett photographed in the United States Supreme Court Lawyers' Lounge in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 3, 2025.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

WASHINGTON – Read the opinions for yourself.

That’s the message Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor had Sept. 10 for viewers of the “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” the day after her blistering response to her conservative colleagues’ latest ruling siding with the Trump administration.

The majority said the administration can for now resume the indiscriminate immigration-related stops in southern California that sparked protests and charges of racial profiling.

In her dissent for the court’s three liberals, Sotomayor said the majority’s decision “is yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket.”

“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” wrote Sotomayor, the first Latina on the court. “Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent."

After Colbert read that portion of her 21-page pushback to his studio audience, they gave Sotomayor a standing ovation.

“I have the whole thing if you’d like to read it right now,” the liberal host told Sotomayor.

The justice had a better idea.

“I want you to read it, and I want you to read the concurring opinion,” she said. “Too many people hear what a Supreme Court decision is, and they come to immediate conclusions based on what only their personal feelings are. You shouldn’t do that.”

Sotomayor added people will be shocked that the other side has some good points.

“Not in this one,” she interjected as the audience laughed. “But in others.”

Sotomayor and Barrett spreading same message

Sotomayor has been making many media appearances as she promotes a new children’s book, “Just Shine!: How to Be a Better You."

One of her conservative colleagues, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, has also been encouraging people to read both sides’ views of a case as she promotes her new book, “Listening to the Law.”

In it, she tells the story of her brother-in-law arriving at the annual “Coney Family Vacation” with all 79 pages of the court’s 2022 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. He’d also brought 91 pages of concurring and dissenting opinions.

“You always say 'read the opinion,’ so that’s what I’m doing,” he said.

Although discussing the ruling did not top Barrett’s list for how she wanted to spend her vacation, she hugged him.

“I do always advise people to read the Court’s opinions, but I doubt many people – including lawyers – take me up on it,” she wrote.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: After standing ovation for blistering dissent, Sotomayor urges people to read both sides

Reporting by Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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