“Our job is to stand up for people who can’t do it themselves. And our job is to be the champion of lost causes,” she said. “But right now, we can’t lose the battles we are facing. And we need trained and passionate and committed lawyers to fight this fight.”

Sotomayor didn’t mention the president as she spoke at an event in the nation’s capital hosted by a section of the American Bar Association, which has also been targeted by Trump.

The liberal justice’s remarks come a day after conservative Chief Justice John Roberts defended judicial independence as necessary to “check the excesses of the Congress or the executive” at an appearance in Buffalo, New York.