NEW YORK (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, questioning whether Americans understand the difference between a king and a president, told a New York Law School crowd Tuesday that improved civic education across the country would help people make better decisions.
Sotomayor, speaking at a panel discussion during a “Constitution and Citizenship Day Summit,” did not make comments that were overtly political and did not directly address any controversies of the moment. President Donald Trump was not mentioned.
At one point, though, she raised doubts about how much Americans are being taught about civics in schools.
“Do we understand what the difference is between a king and a president? And 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,” she said.
She decried the lack of education about civics and how democracy works, even giving her version of Ben Franklin’s famous anecdote at the end of the constitutional Convention in Philadelphia when he was asked whether the nation would have a republic or a monarchy.
“We have a republic, madam, if we can keep it,” she recalled that Franklin said.
Sotomayor called social media “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 called for civic education to be required in law schools along with some public service, though she was quick to add that she would suggest a broad definition of it.
“I don’t think it’s working for the government or anything like that,” she said, suggesting that it might mean doing something outside the classroom to make a difference and affect a community in a positive way.
Without alluding to any current events, the justice also criticized those who emerge from law school to announce edicts against the free speech of others.
“The thing that gets to me is every time I listen to a lawyer-trained representative saying we should criminalize free speech in some way. I think to myself: ‘That law school failed,’” Sotomayor said. “If any student, who becomes a lawyer hasn’t been taught civics, then the law school has failed.”
The Bronx-born justice said she became interested in civics in grammar school, where she began debating issues, and improved those skills when she learned to debate both sides of a single issue.
At the end of her remarks, she urged students who watched in a large auditorium or saw her on video screens in overflow rooms to think about everything in the world that is wrong and “everything that’s happening in the United States” and realize ”we adults have really messed this up.”
She said she’s counting on today’s students to find solutions.
