Sotomayor questions whether Americans can distinguish between presidents and kings

• Sotomayor has issued dissenting opinions against the Trump administration — to whom the Supreme Court has largely issued favorable rulings.

Driving the news: "Do we understand what the difference is between a king and president?" Sotomayor said at an event with the New York Law School in Manhattan on Tuesday.

• "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 should not do."

State of play: Sotomayor has long been a proponent for civics education, including as part of the governing board of iCivics, a nonpartisan civics curriculum organization.

Zoom in: Without democracy, she said on Tuesday, "what's left?"

• "The assumption that all laws are good is not necessarily a starting proposition. We've already experienced, in our country, bad laws," she said, per NBC News.

Flashback: In May, Sotomayor urged hundreds of lawyers to stand up in the face of the Trump administration's threats against law firms and federal judges.

• "Right now, we can't lose the battles we are facing," she said at the time.

The other side: Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative voice on the court, recently downplayed concerns of a U.S. constitutional crisis.

• She also said that Americans need a better understanding of the law.
• "It's not just an opinion poll about whether the Supreme Court thinks something is good or whether the Supreme Court thinks something is bad..." she said. "The court should not be imposing its own values on the American people."

Go deeper:

• Sotomayor on Trump-era threats: "We can't lose the battles we are facing"
• "Calvinball": Judges give rare public rebuke of Supreme Court