When major rulings are announced, most Supreme Court justices practice a kind of studied impassivity.
No matter how much they oppose a colleague’s decision as it’s delivered from the elevated bench, they sit stone-faced. Alternatively, no matter how much justices in the majority resent the rare oral dissenting statement, they avoid betraying emotion in the courtroom.
But then there’s Samuel Alito.
Alito, who has a history of reacting with visible annoyance or incredulity – his pronounced eye-rolling as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg read an opinion made headlines in 2013 – let his anger flash Thursday at Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Alito suggested to spectators that she had blindsided him with her oral dissent to his opinion favoring the Trump administration in a dispute over refugee policy at the southern border.
