Sotomayor Hopes Court 'Takes Back' Immunity Ruling, Then Jokes

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said this weekend she hopes the Supreme Court will overturn presidential immunity and other rulings she dissented from during her lifetime.

Speaking at an event at the George Washington Presidential Library, Sotomayor said: "I'm hoping that the court will take back some of the crazy things that it's done." She then added, "I'm only joking … maybe not." She also said, "I dissent a lot."

Dissenting is her job, and nobody disputes that. But a sitting justice openly rooting for her own Court to reverse its decisions, then winking at the audience, is a different thing. The Court's majority did not decide the immunity case on a whim; it ruled on the Constitution's structure of executive power.

Conservatives hear this and ask a fair question: if the shoe were on the other foot, and a conservative justice mused about 'taking back' a liberal landmark, would the press treat it as a quip? Judges are supposed to call balls and strikes, not publicly root for a rematch.