Sotomayor urges better civic education so people know difference between
presidents and kings
[September 17, 2025]
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
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.
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Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor speaks at the New York Law
School's Constitution and Citizen Day Summit, in New York, Tuesday,
Sept. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
“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.
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