Weighing in on a domestic matter as he began a day of ceremony, meetings and a joint news conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, Trump seized on a dissenting opinion last week by Justice Sonia Sotomayor and a years-old comment by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to demand that the two Democratic-appointed jurists recuse themselves from any cases involving him.
Justices decide for themselves when to step aside from cases the court is considering, and it is highly unlikely either justice would sit out cases involving Trump, including two cases the court will hear on March 31 over subpoenas for Trump’s tax, bank and financial records. The president wants the justices to reject demands for the records issued by House committees and the Manhattan district attorney.
Besides ignoring the entreaties of Attorney General William Barr, the president’s attack on the two justices also risked provoking a reaction from Chief Justice John Roberts. In 2018, Roberts admonished Trump for calling a Supreme Court justice who ruled against one of his administration’s policies “an Obama judge.”
His comments about Ginsburg stem from interviews in 2016 that were critical of Trump, then a candidate for president. She quickly apologized for her “ill-advised” remarks, but Ginsburg has not recused herself from any Trump case so far.
His ire at Sotomayor appears to be referencing a dissenting opinion she wrote Friday. The president said the justice was “trying to shame people with perhaps a different view into voting her way.”
But regardless of party and ideology, justices have said they write dissenting opinions to do just that — change the minds of people with whom they disagree through persuasive reasoning. Indeed, sometimes draft dissents are so successful that they become majority opinions of the court.
Sotomayor issued her dissent last week against an order by the court allowing the Trump administration to proceed with a plan to deny green cards to immigrants who are deemed likely to become “public charges” reliant on government aid programs.
In her seven-page opinion, Sotomayor wrote that the Trump administration had become too quick to claim emergencies and run to the Supreme Court after interim losses in the lower courts.
Writing on Twitter Tuesday morning, Trump quoted Laura Ingraham of Fox News: “ ‘Sotomayor accuses GOP appointed Justices of being biased in favor of Trump.’ ”
“This is a terrible thing to say. Trying to ‘shame’ some into voting her way? She never criticized Justice Ginsberg when she called me a ‘faker.’ Both should recuse themselves on all Trump, or Trump related, matters!”
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