Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is warning that Americans may not know the difference between a president and a king.
During a civics conference held at New York Law School in Manhattan, Sotomayor on Tuesday raised doubts about whether students are receiving a proper civics education in schools.
“Do we understand what the difference is between a king and a president?” the liberal justice asked the crowd, before adding: “I think if people understood these things from the beginning, they would be more informed as to what would be important in a democracy in terms of what people can or shouldn’t do.”
During her remarks, Sotomayor did not weigh in on any controversies or mention President Donald Trump by name. She also did not comment on the president’s moves to exert aggressive executive power.
As the conservative-majority high court has sided with Trump in several cases since he started his second term, Sotomayor has emerged as a dissenting voice, including over his administration’s downsizing of federal agencies. In July of last year, Sotomayor directly claimed that Trump is “now a king above the law” as she railed against a ruling that found he had some immunity from prosecution.
While calling for civic education to be a requirement in law schools, Sotomayor suggested that it could mean working outside of the classroom, saying, “I don’t think it’s working for the government or anything like that.”
She went on to say that social media is “one of the largest causes of misinformation on the internet.”
“If you are only hearing one side of the story, you are not making an informed decision,” Sotomayor said. “The world is a complex place and issues are always difficult.”
Sotomayor also questioned the lack of education about how a democracy should work, pointing to Ben Franklin’s anecdote when he was asked whether the nation would have a republic or a monarchy.
“We have a republic, madam, if we can keep it,” Sotomayor said, recounting Franklin’s reply at the end of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
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