Justice Sotomayor Says Lawyers Must ‘Stand Up’ and ‘Fight This Fight’

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, speaking to hundreds of lawyers at an American Bar Association event on Thursday night, urged the legal profession to toughen up.

“If you’re not used to fighting, and losing battles, then don’t become a lawyer,” she said. “Our job is to stand up for people who can’t do it themselves.”

“Right now,” she added, “we can’t lose the battles we are facing.”

Justice Sotomayor spoke in general terms, but her remarks came against the backdrop of immense stress on lawyers and the legal system from the Trump administration. That tension included a string of executive orders from President Trump retaliating against prominent law firms, stripping their lawyers of security clearances, barring them from entering federal buildings and discouraging federal officials from interacting with the firms.

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