On Tuesday, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor made an appearance on CBS Mornings to promote the release of her new children’s book, Just Shine!: How to Be a Better You. The anchors for CBS found it appropriate to repeatedly badger a Supreme Court Justice with off-topic questions concerning Monday’s ruling on illegal-immigration ICE raids in California and for her thoughts about America’s future.

Co-anchor Tony Dokoupil briefly acknowledged the intended purpose of Sotomayor’s presence on the morning program, but rushed towards her recent dissent:

DOKOUPIL: I want to get to the beautiful ideas in this book. It’s a tribute to your mother. It's about seeing others, helping them be their best. But I think a lot of our viewers are going to be wondering about this case yesterday, about enforcement actions in Los Angeles. You say it opens the door to what amounts to racial profiling. Your colleague, Justice Kavanaugh, says it’s just common sense to look in the areas where immigration violations are most likely. What he says is common sense, you say is unconstitutional. Help us understand that.

SOTOMAYOR: I can't and I won't. It's a pending case right now. And as a result, I don't talk about pending cases for the Supreme Court. We’ve decided this one issue but the case is going back down. There will be further proceedings in the court below. And so, you have to rely on the public reading, what we write.

Democratic Party groupie and co-anchor Gayle King refused to be satisfied by the Justice’s deferral and doubled-down on the scrutinizing, pressing her to share her “concerns” for America with their viewers (Click “expand”):

KING: Do you think the words speak for themselves, what you said?

SOTOMAYOR: Oh, I think so. I think I’m—I tried to be as clear as possible to explain to people as I think I did in the opinion. The reasons why I believe it's unconstitutional. And many of my reasons are based solely on the precedents that have established what reasonable cause for police to stop individuals are.

KING: Can you talk about what concerns you?

SOTOMAYOR: No, because the opinion does that.

KING: Okay.

SOTOMAYOR: But what I can say is I often ask people when they react to an opinion, they do so on the basis of newspaper reports. And I encourage them to educate themselves and read the actual decisions. Don't take snippets. But try to understand what the logic of each side is.

Rather than simply accept Sotomayor’s unusually succinct and rational response and move on from the subject, Dokoupil further pushed the tangent into new territory by asking a more specific question: “May I ask just one process question? So you do write in the opinion that this is a misuse of the emergency docket […] sometimes called the ‘shadow docket.’ Why is this a misuse of that docket?”

Sotomayor politely obliged by explaining how emergency docket cases sidestep the normal process of being brought up and accepted by the Court:

You’re starting at the wrong starting place. […] It’s a situation in which you’re trying to bypass the decisions of the lower court, before they are finished. You want the Supreme Court to intervene early in the case. That's why it's called an emergency docket. Not because it's an important issue as such. But because it’s bypassing a normal process. And so when someone says it's a misuse of that process, they’re talking about whether it's right for the court to intervene at that moment. And so—

King resumed the dogpiling by interrupting Sotomayor and asking if America was headed in the right direction. The Justice’s patience clearly drew thin by King’s added persistence. Sotomayor deflected by emphasizing the importance the people’s opinions and actions and tied a bow on the topic by pivoting to her new book:

You know, I don't think whether I'm concerned matters. I think what matters is how-whether people are concerned. Alright? Because I’m a Supreme Court justice. I get to decide individual cases. I get to speak my mind about them. Alright? In the end, I don't change what exists. People change what they don't like. Or they support what they do like. But either way the power of change is in people. That’s the message of Just Shine! 

After wasting over two full minutes of air time, the anchors relented and gave due attention to Sotomayor’s original purpose for her appearance. Rather than show the Justice respect by saving the politics for another day, CBS pounced upon the opportunity to press Sotomayor for answers on her dissent.

The transcript is below. Click "expand" read:

CBS Mornings
September 9, 2025
8:09:59 a.m. Eastern

(…)

TONY DOKOUPIL: Beautiful picture there from the first page of the book, and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor joins us first on CBS Mornings. Justice, thank you very much for being here.

I want to get to the beautiful ideas in this book. It’s a tribute to your mother. It's about seeing others, helping them be their best. But I think a lot of our viewers are going to be wondering about this case yesterday, about enforcement actions in Los Angeles. You say it opens the door to what amounts to racial profiling. Your colleague, Justice Kavanaugh, says it’s just common sense to look in the areas where immigration violations are most likely. What he says is common sense, you say is unconstitutional. Help us understand that.

JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR (U.S. Supreme Court): I can't and I won't. It's a pending case right now. And as a result, I don't talk about pending cases for the Supreme Court. We’ve decided this one issue but the case is going back down. There will be further proceedings in the court below. And so, you have to rely on the public reading, what we write.

GAYLE KING: Do you think the words speak for themselves, what you said?

SOTOMAYOR: Oh, I think so. I think I’m—I tried to be as clear as possible to explain to people as I think I did in the opinion. The reasons why I believe it's unconstitutional. And many of my reasons are based solely on the precedents that have established what reasonable cause for police to stop individuals are.

KING: Can you talk about what concerns you?

SOTOMAYOR: No, because the opinion does that.

KING: Okay.

SOTOMAYOR: But what I can say is I often ask people when they react to an opinion, they do so on the basis of newspaper reports. And I encourage them to educate themselves and read the actual decisions. Don't take snippets. But try to understand what the logic of each side is.

DOKOUPIL: May I ask just one process question? So you do write in the opinion that this is a misuse of the emergency docket. It gets a little technical for people, but basically there are two tracks for a Supreme Court case. There’s one that goes through oral arguments, and then you get kind of a vote and decisions. And then there’s this emergency docket, sometimes called the “shadow docket.” Why is this a misuse of that docket?

SOTOMAYOR: You’re starting at the wrong starting place. Cases start in the lower courts. District court, then circuit court. If you disagree with what the one judge decides on the district court, you can go to a panel of judges which is called the court of appeals. And from there you go to the Supreme Court.

The emergency docket is just that. It’s a situation in which you’re trying to bypass the decisions of the lower court, before they are finished. You want the Supreme Court to intervene early in the case. That's why it's called an emergency docket. Not because it's an important issue as such. But because it’s bypassing a normal process. And so when someone says it's a misuse of that process, they’re talking about whether it's right for the court to intervene at that moment. And so—

KING: I heard what you said about not being able to talk about specific cases, and the words speak to-for themselves. But broadly speaking, are you concerned about the direction the country’s going, as you sit on the Supreme Court? Can you talk about your feelings about that? Where we are at this moment in time.

SOTOMAYOR: You know, I don't think whether I'm concerned matters. I think what matters is how-whether people are concerned. Alright? Because I’m a Supreme Court justice. I get to decide individual cases. I get to speak my mind about them. Alright? In the end, I don't change what exists. People change what they don't like. Or they support what they do like. But either way the power of change is in people. That’s the message of Just Shine! In the end for me, the power of changes in the hands of children.

When you think about parents, we as parents—I don't have children, but I have a lot of god children, and I love children in my life. We’ve really messed up the world. Haven't we? We have two world wars going—

KING: A lot of people agree with you about that.

SOTOMAYOR: Regional difficulties, health, education, environmental problems. The world is filled with difficulties. Who is going to change that if we’re not?

KING: But in-in your book—

SOTOMAYOR: It’s kids.

KING: In your book, The World of Change [sic], Celina, one thing was change for her was by showing love in all different forms.

SOTOMAYOR: Yes.

KING: That’s the crux of who this little girl—your mother was. By showing love in all of its different forms and many different ways. Is that your message for all of us?

SOTOMAYOR: It's not just love. It's attention and caring. Because love is--we often have children who misbehave.

KING: Yes.

SOTOMAYOR: We don’t like their bad habits.

KING: Yes.

NATE BURLESON: Yeah.

SOTOMAYOR: But we still like them, right?

BURLESON: Yeah.

KING: Yes. We wouldn't send them back.

SOTOMAYOR: And we wouldn’t send them back.

KING: Right.

SOTOMAYOR: Although there are moments when we think about it. But, we don't do it. Okay?

KING: Uh huh.

SOTOMAYOR: And we don't do it because what love means to me, and it did to my mother, is caring about people. Caring and understanding them. Listening.

BURLESON: Yeah.

SOTOMAYOR: Showing your love by showing them the best side of themselves.

BURLESON: Yeah.

SOTOMAYOR: And that's what this book is trying to show kids. That they can make the world light up.

BURLESON: Yeah. And in these times we need sagacious voices—like yours—to inspire the next generation. But also, there are lessons within this book that adults can take away—

SOTOMAYOR: Yes.

BURLESON: That our leaders can take away. What larger message are you sending to those that aren't just kids?

SOTOMAYOR: Well, if you read the story, you realize that I didn't come to-to recognize that my mother was my greatest teacher until she passed.

KING: Yeah.

SOTOMAYOR: When people ask you, “Who was your favorite teacher?” Everybody responds with a school-based person, right?

KING: Yeah.

BURLESON: Yes.

SOTOMAYOR: Nobody ever says my mother, my father.

BURLESON: Right.

SOTOMAYOR: It is parents who are your first teacher—

KING: Yeah.

SOTOMAYOR: And the longest lasting teacher—

KING: Yep.

BURLESON: Yeah.

SOTOMAYOR: - in terms of the in terms of the lessons you take.

KING: That's where you get the foundation. For sure.

SOTOMAYOR: And parents set the example. And so for me, in reading this book—

BURLESON: Yeah.

SOTOMAYOR: I hope parents are paying attention that my mother was leading by example.

BURLESON: Thank you for setting the example.

DOKOUPIL: Thank you—

KING: And now you are setting an example.

DOKOUPIL: And thank you for being here. And I hear you loud and clear. You say read the opinions and read the books.

SOTOMAYOR: Exactly.

(…)