Sotomayor’s remarks appeared to be a rebuke of recent attacks on the judiciary by President Donald Trump and his allies.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor appeared to criticize recent attacks on the courts by President Donald Trump and his allies Friday evening in remarks at Georgetown University, calling for “fearlessly independent” judges.

The high court’s longest-serving liberal did not mention the president by name but said the rule of law is being challenged. Trump has played a lead role in an escalating showdown between his base and the judiciary over rulings that have blocked, at least temporarily, many of his initiatives.

The president and his allies have called for the impeachment of judges, while some of his top advisers have embraced the idea of defying court orders. The administration has sought to remove judges from cases after they ruled against the government.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are set to hold hearings and introduce legislation next week that would curb the powers of judges to block the president’s agenda.

“One of the things that is troubling so many right now is many of the standards being changed right now were norms that governed officials into what was right and wrong,” Sotomayor said Friday night. “Once norms are broken, then you are shaking some of the foundation of the rule of law.”

In response to questions from Georgetown University Law Center Dean William Treanor, Sotomayor told law students that those norms could be reestablished but “we are going to have to go back to reminding people what the fundamentals of their obligations as citizens [are] and their obligation to monitor public representatives.”

In laying out the proper role of a judge, Sotomayor recalled something she said she’d been told by a member of Canada’s high court. The jurist said judges should be “fearlessly independent, protective of rights and ensuring the state is respectful of both.”

“That is really at the end what judges should do, but in the end it’s what every citizen should do: ensure that the courts are fearlessly independent,” Sotomayor said. “That we understand that our obligation is to protect the rights given to us under the Constitution.”

She added: “We also have to demand that all others respect both of these principles. That’s what our function must be.”

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. issued a rare statement earlier this month criticizing calls for impeaching judges. He did so hours after Trump called for the ouster of U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg, who had put a hold on Trump’s use of a wartime authority called the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of a Venezuelan gang without hearings.

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

Just 10 weeks into Trump’s second term, the Supreme Court has already received six requests from the Trump administration to intervene and overturn lower-court rulings that have paused or blocked Trump’s efforts to dramatically reshape the federal government and politics.

The Justice Department sent three of the emergency petitions to the high court this week, on deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, the firing of thousands of probationary workers and the cancellation of teacher grants Trump officials said promoted diversity, equity and inclusion.