A rare and tense exchange took place at the Supreme Court on Thursday after Justice Sonia Sotomayor strongly criticized a majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito in an asylum case.
So what happened between Alito and Sotomayor?
Justice Samuel Alito sharply responded to Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Thursday after she delivered a strong dissent against his majority opinion in an asylum case, according to The Hill.
In a 6-3 decision split along ideological lines, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can turn away asylum seekers before they reach US soil.
Before Sotomayor spoke, Alito briefly summarized the court’s majority opinion in Mullin v Al Otro Lado. According to the New York Post, Alito’s opinion said the government can deny entry to migrants at the border before giving them a chance to apply for asylum.
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Alito’s reaction while Sotomayor read her dissent
As Sotomayor read her 35-page dissent from the bench, taking more time than her colleague, Alito leaned back in his chair and rocked back and forth, staring at the ceiling and at times appearing to close his eyes, as per The Hill.
When Sotomayor criticized the majority opinion as “egregiously wrong,” Alito leaned forward in his chair, propped his chin in his hands and stared up at the ceiling.
When Sotomayor commented about the majority opinion’s reference to the language of “arrival” in the context of immigration and used the example of landing at Reagan Washington National Airport, Alito briefly set his gaze on Sotomayor.
After Sotomayor finished speaking, Alito quietly cleared his throat and gave a rare unscripted response. Looking displeased, Alito said that if he had known she would read her dissent in full, “there’s much more I would have added” to his own comments.
Alito also urged people to read his full opinion to understand how he addressed Sotomayor’s arguments. He also noted that the immigration policy at the center of the case had been used by both Democratic and Republican administrations. However, he stopped himself from saying more, adding, “I won’t add anything more to that.”
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The case at the center of the clash
Alito first briefly summed up his majority opinion in Mullin v Al Otro Lado, in which he held that the government has the right to turn back migrants stopped at the US border before giving them a chance to apply for asylum, as per the New York Post.
The court’s 6-3 ruling along ideological lines opens the door for the Trump administration to turn around those seeking asylum in America before they reach US soil.
In Mullin v Al Otro Lado, the court ruled that the practice of “metering,” which limits the number of people who can apply for asylum each day and was legal under federal law which allows migrants to seek protection once on American soil, regardless of whether they entered the US legally.
Alito wrote three of the four majority opinions issued by the Supreme Court on Thursday and summarized them one after another. In another case, Alito ruled that the Trump administration can end Temporary Protected Status for migrants from Haiti and Syria, meaning they could lose protection from deportation.
It is not regular practice for justices to read dissenting opinions from the bench, but it is done occasionally to signal strong opposition to the majority’s ruling.
