Sotomayor Says Presidents Are Not Monarchs and Must Obey Rulings

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, speaking at a Florida college on Tuesday, made pointed remarks about the limits of presidential power and her fear that government officials might flout court decisions.

“Our founders were hellbent on ensuring that we didn’t have a monarchy,” she said, “and the first way they thought of that was to give Congress the power of the purse.”

The justice made clear that she was speaking in general terms, but against the backdrop of President Trump’s blitz of executive orders to halt federal programs and the scores of legal challenges that followed, her comments took on a more telling cast.

In the first weeks of his new administration, Mr. Trump has argued that he is free to root out what he says is fraud and waste in the federal government even in the face of congressional commands to spend allocations. A federal judge ruled on Monday that the administration had defied his order to release billions in grant money.

The president said on Tuesday he would abide by court decisions. But Vice President JD Vance and others in Mr. Trump’s orbit have said in recent days that some of his actions are not subject to review by the courts.

Justice Sotomayor, a member of the court’s three-justice liberal minority, said she expected government officials to abide by the Supreme Court’s decisions.