As we reported, the Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a major win in an immigration case Thursday, striking down a lower court ruling that had barred the federal government from turning asylum seekers away at the southern border. The ruling was 6-3 in the case, Mullin v. Al Otro Lado, and said that migrants still on Mexican soil have not “arrived in the United States” and therefore have no statutory right to asylum processing.
You can probably guess which jurists were on which side: Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett were on the majority, while Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson were on the losing team.
It wasn’t a warm and fuzzy day in the courtroom, though, as things got tense between Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority opinion, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote a long and angry dissent. She insisted she read it out loud, which isn’t a first, but is considered unusual for a dissent.
Alito reportedly appeared to be annoyed as she droned on:
Alito first briefly read the majority’s position.
As Sotomayor read her dissenting opinion 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.
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.
Sotomayor read from her 39 pages of angry rhetoric as the other judges either stared impassively or read their notes:
Over roughly 10 minutes, Sotomayor invoked the 1939 voyage of more than 900 Jewish refugees turned away from Cuba and the United States, most of whom later perished in the Holocaust, and tied that history to international treaties protecting people fleeing persecution. She argued the ruling betrayed that legacy and detailed the violence and extortion facing migrants stranded near the border. Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined her.
We often read about the collegiality of the court and how they manage to stay friendly despite sharply different outlooks, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised that Alito (and Brett Kavanaugh) doesn’t actually care for Sotomayor all that much.
He clapped back at his colleague in a rare rebuke:
“Then Justice Alito, who’s going to read another opinion, he stops and he says, ‘If I had known that the dissent was going to deliver that opinion from the bench, I would have said more, I would have said more about why we ruled the way we did,'” [CNN Reporter Joan] Biskupic said. “It was a very bitter response to what we had just heard.”
In a highly unusual moment at the Supreme Court, Justice Alito gave an impromptu response to Justice Sotomayor from the bench after she read her dissent from his majority opinion in Mullin v. Al Otro Lado.
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) June 25, 2026
Read Related: Border Win: SCOTUS Rules Migrants in Mexico Haven’t ‘Arrived’ in the US for Asylum Purposes
SCOTUS Hands Trump Major Immigration Win – Says Courts Can’t Second-Guess Most TPS Decisions
It can’t be easy working alongside colleagues you fundamentally disagree with on virtually everything regarding law, order, and life. I bet Alito is looking forward to the upcoming recess at the end of June.
Editor’s Note: Unelected federal judges are hijacking President Trump’s agenda and insulting the will of the people.
Help us expose out-of-control judges dead set on halting President Trump’s mandate for change. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
