The Supreme Court is playing damage control. Again. On Friday, the high court’s press office scrambled to clean up a rare, highly public spat between Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, chalking the whole embarrassing episode up to a simple “misunderstanding.” Sure it was. According to a court spokesperson, Sotomayor’s staff actually warned Alito’s office ahead of time that she planned to read her dissent aloud from the bench. Alito, apparently, missed the memo.
It happened Thursday. The court was handing down a 6-3 ruling upholding a controversial border policy. Sotomayor, the senior liberal, did something rare. She read her dissent aloud. It is a move reserved for deep, burning disagreement. Alito, who wrote the majority opinion, looked blindsided. He went off-script. “There’s much that I would have added to my bench statement had I known there would be a dissent read,” he grumbled. So much for the court’s carefully choreographed theater.
The case itself centered on “metering.” This policy allows border agents to turn back asylum seekers before they even cross the line. It started under Obama, got formalized under Trump, and is currently dormant. The conservative majority ruled that to claim asylum, you must actually stand on American soil. Sotomayor did not hold back. In her oral dissent, she compared the policy to the United States turning away Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s—hundreds of whom later perished in the Holocaust. Heavy stuff.
Alito could not let it go. Instead of moving to his next opinion, he defended the policy. He called it “orderly and humane.” He pointed out that both Democrats and Republicans used it. It was a petty, unscripted moment of live drama in a building that loathes transparency. The mask is slipping. With major decisions on Donald Trump and culture war flashpoints looming, the tension behind those heavy velvet curtains is palpable.
This is not the first crack in the facade this term. Just last April, Sotomayor had to play nice and issue a public apology to Justice Brett Kavanaugh. She had criticized his writing in another immigration case during a speech in Kansas. “I regret my hurtful comments,” she said back then. Do not expect Alito to offer a similar olive branch. The term is wrapping up next week, and the temperature inside the building is only going up.
