Sonia Sotomayor: Brett Kavanaugh is part of Supreme Court ‘family’

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Justice Sotomayor opens up about Justice Kavanaugh

'Fox and Friends' discusses Sotomayor's opinions about her new colleague Brett Kavanaugh.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said newly appointed Justice Brett Kavanaugh is part of the Supreme Court “family” whom she will judge based on his work and not by what occurred during his controversial confirmation process.

In an interview with CNN’s “Axe Files,” Sotomayor said Kavanaugh is part of the Supreme Court “work family.”

"When you're charged with working together for most of the remainder of your life, you have to create a relationship," Sotomayor told host David Axelrod. "The nine of us are now a family and we're a family with each of us our own burdens and our own obligations to others, but this is our work family, and it's just as important as our personal family.”

"We've probably spent more time with each other than most justices spend, who have spouses, with their spouses," the justice said.

President Trump poses for a photo with Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the Justices' Conference Room before an investiture ceremony Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018, at the Supreme Court in Washington. (AP)

Kavanaugh was sworn in as the 114th Supreme Court justice last month after a tumultuous confirmation battle. His confirmation to the nation’s highest court was nearly derailed after multiple women accused the judge of sexual misconduct.

KAVANAUGH SWORN IN AS 114TH SUPREME COURT JUSTICE, HOURS AFTER SENATE VOTES TO CONFIRM

Sotomayor said Saturday that she’s not judging her new colleague on what he may have done prior to being appointed a justice, but on his current work on the Supreme Court. She recalled speaking with Justice Clarence Thomas, who faced allegations of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearing in 1991.

"It was Justice [Clarence] Thomas who tells me that when he first came to the Court, another justice approached him and said, 'I judge you by what you do here. Welcome.' And I repeated that story to Justice Kavanaugh when I first greeted him here," Sotomayor said.

"Conservative, liberal, those are political terms," she said when asked about a conservative-leaning Supreme Court. "Do I suspect that I might be dissenting a bit more? Possibly, but I still have two relatively new colleagues, one very new colleague, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. And we've agreed in quite a few cases, we've disagreed in a bunch, But you know, let's see."