Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Thursday said Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.’s oft-repeated comparison of the work of judging to umpires who call “balls and strikes” omitted a key element: defining the strike zone.

“Well, his analogy left out one important ingredient,” Sotomayor said in a conversation with Rabbi Lyle Fishman for the Ohr Kodesh congregation just outside of Washington, D.C. “Figuring out where the strike zone is requires a value judgment. That’s why different umpires have different strike zones but they all try to stay within the parameters of what their eyes give them.”