Sotomayor and Barrett stress Supreme Court camaraderie

But both Sotomayor, an appointee of President Barack Obama, and Barrett, a Trump appointee, emphasized that the members of the high court don’t consider themselves obliged to support their political patrons. There’s eight years,” Sotomayor said, to laughter from many in the room — including Barrett. And, so, it’s not just that we’re not Obama judges and Trump judges, but we’re also not Democratic judges or Republican judges. Sotomayor and Barrett both asserted that the justices have maintained personal respect and cordiality even as they wrestled with issues that bitterly divide many Americans. The picture Sotomayor and Barrett offered of a collegial and collaborative court was in some tension with comments other justices have offered about the court in recent years.