Sotomayor, an appointee of former President Barack Obama and the third woman to sit on the nation’s highest court, spoke optimistically Thursday about the institution in Washington, D.C., during the American Constitution Society’s National Convention.

“I hope not for war, but through constitutional amendment, to change in legislation, towards lobbying, towards continuing the battle each day to regain the public’s confidence that we as a court, as an institution, have not lost our way,” Sotomayor told a packed crowd at the event hosted in the Marriott Marquis hotel.