Powerful Line From Sotomayor's Scathing Dissent After ICE Ruling Ignites Standing Ovation On 'Colbert'

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor received a standing ovation during her appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after Colbert read a line from her powerful dissent following the Court's ruling that immigration agents can use racial profiling when conducting arrests.

The case was brought by several individuals detained during ICE raids. A federal district judge initially found the raids unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

But the Trump administration appealed, and the conservative-led Supreme Court—which includes three Trump-appointed justices— took up the case last month through its emergency “shadow docket.”

Sotomayor’s dissent cited multiple examples this year of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Los Angeles using physical force to detain people they suspected of being in the country illegally — often based on their workplace, appearance, or language.

She warned that the Court’s ruling effectively sanctioned such tactics, writing that it declared “all Latinos, U.S. citizens or not, who work low-wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work, and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction.”

You can watch her moment on Colbert in the video below.

Colbert noted that if agents with ICE are "just looking for cases with reasonable suspicion, which is a much lower bar than probable cause, they could make up new rationales for a different group of people who they feel are associated with some crime that has to be prevented."

Sotomayor responded:

"In fairness to the majority, and by the way, I didn't agree with them ... they claimed there was more than those two factors, being Latino and speaking Spanish. I don't think the third adds much to the equation but they do. They say it's because they are working in low-wage jobs." ...

"That's what they said and they're working at jobs where illegal aliens typically work. Now, I explain—and read my dissent—"

Colbert said, "I will," and read:

"That decision of the majority is 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 in a low-wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our Constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”

The crowd cheered and gave Sotomayor a standing ovation in response.

People were moved and shared their thoughts.

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Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined in Sotomayor’s dissent.

Sotomayor also appeared for an interview with CBS Mornings, and stressed that the people of the U.S. have the power to invoke change.

She said:

"I don't think whether I'm concerned matters. I think what matters is whether people are concerned. I am a Supreme Court Justice. I get to decide individual cases."

"I get to speak my mind about them. In the end, I don't change what exists. People change what they don't like or they support what they do like. The power of change is in people."

She declined to go into further specifics because the case is pending but said she "tried to be as clear as possible... explain to people as I think did in the opinion the reasons why I believe it's unconstitutional." She added that "many of my reasons are based solely on the precedents that have established what reasonable cause for police to stop individuals are."