Like many Connecticut residents, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has family members whose lives have been rocked by weather-related losses in Puerto Rico. So the tempest of controversy surrounding the nomination of the court’s newest associate justice, Brett Kavanaugh, has been, in context, a less painful experience.

Sotomayor said Brett Kavanaugh has been greeted with the traditional “welcoming for a new member of our court,” adding that members of the court “are going to let these times pass,” an apparent reference to his stormy confirmation process.