The justice made remarks at once cautious and forceful at Georgetown University Law Center, which has called attacks by the Trump administration a threat to academic freedom.

Speaking to law students in Washington, Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested the country is going through a challenging period of increasing public disrespect for judges, lawyers and courts. “One of the things that’s troubling so many right now is many of the standards that are being changed right now were norms that governed officials into what was right and wrong,

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor told students at Georgetown University that judges should be “fiercely independent” in responding to growing challenges to the rule of law.