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Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has backed efforts by federal courts to thwart President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Although she didn’t mention Trump by name, the judge said that the “founders” put safeguards in place to prevent presidents from turning the nation into a “monarchy,” The Hill reported.
Sotomayor made her remarks during a fireside chat with Knight Foundation CEO Maribel Pérez Wadsworth this week.
The Obama-appointed justice was careful not to mention Trump by name.
However, her remarks come as the Trump administration pushed back on federal judges who have granted temporary injunctions against some of his executive orders.
Sotomayor noted that the judiciary has “soft power” over laws in the U.S. even as Congress makes the laws.
During the event at Miami Dade College in Florida, Sotomayor claimed:
“Our founders were hell-bent on ensuring that we didn’t have a monarchy.
“And the first way they thought of that was to give Congress the power of the purse, and because that’s an incredible power.”
According to the Washington Post, several of Trump’s executive orders have been put on hold due to actions in federal courts.
Trump’s ban on birthright citizenship, his dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and other initiatives have been halted by the judiciary.
Other edicts about allowing for transgender military members and banning gender treatments for minors remain in limbo while the judges decide.
The most significant thing Trump has been granted so far is the buyout of federal employees.