what did alito say to sotomayor

Alito said, “There’s much that I would have added to my bench statement had I known there would be a dissent read,” and the Court later said the exchange was a misunderstanding because Sotomayor’s chambers had notified him in advance that she would read her dissent from the bench.

What happened

The moment came during a Supreme Court opinions session in an asylum case, after Sotomayor delivered an unusually long oral dissent from the bench. Alito’s comment was widely read as a sharp reaction, but the Court later tried to cool it down by saying he had been informed beforehand.

Why it got attention

Dissents read aloud from the bench are rare, so the exchange stood out as a public sign of tension between the two justices. Reporting also described the line as terse or testy, which helped it spread quickly across news coverage.

In one line

He basically said he would have added more to his own remarks if he had known Sotomayor was going to read a dissent aloud.