Gorsuch and Sotomayor Unite in Another Civil Liberties Case |
Supreme Court
Gorsuch and Sotomayor Unite in Another Civil Liberties Case
Plus: How a conservative Supreme Court justice ushered in “the birth of modern zoning.”
Damon Root | 10.27.2026 7:00 AM
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(Eric Lee/Pool via CNP/SplashNews/Newscom/Fatima Ruiz.)
One of the more interesting developments at the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years has been the rise of a kind of sporadic alliance in defense of civil liberties between Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch.
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In 2018, for example, Gorsuch, joined by Sotomayor, blasted the Supreme Court for refusing to even hear arguments in Stuart v. Alabama, an important case about forensic evidence, criminal trials, and the Sixth Amendment right to cross-examine one's accusers.
Similarly, in United States v. Davis (2019), Sotomayor joined Gorsuch's majority opinion striking down a federal law that called for enhanced sentencing when a gun was used in connection with certain federal crimes because the law at issue was too imprecisely written to pass constitutional muster. "When........