As the Supreme Court prepares to release its final major opinions next week, an unexpected public rebuke from Justice Samuel Alito toward Justice Sonia Sotomayor is drawing attention. The exchange followed Alito’s announcements of several significant decisions this week.
On Thursday, Alito read summaries from the bench of three major opinions he authored for the court’s six-justice conservative majority. It is uncommon for a single justice to deliver so many bench summaries, and Alito typically keeps such remarks brief. With the term nearly over, however, a large number of high-profile cases remain pending.
The most contested moment came after Alito announced a ruling in a case testing whether migrants may seek asylum by presenting themselves at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. Under the procedure at issue, migrants who present credible fear of persecution to an asylum officer may be allowed into the United States while their claims are processed. Alito’s opinion upheld a Trump administration policy that blocks such applicants at the border — a practice once used by the Obama administration until it was curtailed by lower courts.
When Alito finished his summary of that opinion, Justice Sotomayor read an oral dissent explaining her opposing view. Instead of moving on to his third opinion, Alito paused and, appearing visibly displeased, said, “There is much that I would have added to my bench statement had I known there would be a dissent read.” He then offered a short, unscripted rebuttal from the bench.
Because it is a long-standing practice for a justice who plans to deliver an oral dissent to notify the chief justice and the opinion author in writing, the exchange prompted questions about whether court protocols had been followed. Some observers characterized Alito’s remarks as unusually sharp for an on-the-bench interaction among justices.
When NPR inquired, the court’s public information office responded with a brief statement: “Justice Alito was notified in advance by Justice Sotomayor’s chambers that she would be reading a dissent from the bench. It was a misunderstanding on Justice Alito’s part.”
The statement indicates that Sotomayor’s chambers had notified Alito in advance, and the court cast the incident as a miscommunication rather than a breach of procedure. As the term’s remaining major opinions are issued next week, the brief episode has drawn attention mainly for its rarity and the public nature of the disagreement.