Supreme Court says Alito’s verbal reaction to Sotomayor was based on a ‘misunderstanding’
extremely unusual change The Supreme Court said Friday that the disagreement between Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Sonia Sotomayor over a dissenting opinion read from the bench was based on a “misunderstanding” of the conservative judiciary.
“Justice Alito was notified in advance by Justice Sotomayor’s bench that the bench would read the dissent,” a court spokesperson said in a statement in response to questions from CNN.
“This was a misunderstanding on Justice Alito’s part,” the spokesman added.
The rare statement came a day after Sotomayor, the court’s senior liberal, engaged in a tense standoff between the two justices. read a dissent publicly in a case involving asylum claims. Alito, a conservative who then prepared to summarize his next position, appeared surprised by his colleague’s remarks.
“There was a lot I would have included in my bench statement if I had known there would be a dissenting reading,” Alito said in an unusual break from protocol during the normally highly choreographed delivery of remarks.
Alito, who wrote three of the four opinions released Thursday, suggested he was unaware at the time that Sotomayor would orally read his dissent. Oral dissent is rare and usually highlights the justices’ strong disagreement with the majority opinion.
The back-and-forth comes amid signs of strife behind the curtain of the high court, which is juggling a series of cases heading into the final days of the current term Including President Donald Trump and the culture war issueThe S. Alito-Sotomayor exchange came in a case over the policy of diverting asylum seekers from the border, which the conservative majority approved in a 6-3 decision.
The court will issue additional opinions on Monday and will likely complete its term next week.
It was Sotomayor who had to explain her remarks earlier this year. Justice published an unusual public apology After criticizing Judge Brett Kavanaugh for his writing in another immigration case in April.
Sotomayor’s apology follows comments she made in Kansas in which she criticized Kavanaugh for his behavior. consensus opinion In a high-profile emergency immigration case involving ICE patrols.
“I regret my hurtful comments,” Sotomayor said at the time. “I apologized to my colleague”
The Supreme Court case in question on Thursday concerned a policy called “scaling” in which federal agents at the border turn away asylum seekers before they step foot on U.S. soil, denying them their ability to be formally inspected by authorities; This was the first step in a process that could eventually lead to them being granted asylum.
The policy was first used during President Barack Obama’s administration but was formalized during Trump’s first term. Not currently in use. The Supreme Court ruled that a foreign national must set foot on US soil in order to seek asylum.
After Alito quickly summarized his opinion for the court (Alito is usually quite brief in his summaries), Sotomayor read a lengthy oral dissent that noted, among other things, the infamous incident of the United States turning away a ship of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Hundreds of these refugees were later killed in the Holocaust.
After Sotomayor’s presentation, Alito prepared to deliver his next opinion. Instead, he went on to briefly discuss the asylum case, noting that the issue has been exploited by both the Democratic and Republican administrations. He also described the policy at issue in the lawsuit as “orderly and humane.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
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