The highly unusual exchange between Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Sonia Sotomayor over a dissent read from the bench was based on a “misunderstanding” by the conservative justice, the Supreme Court said Friday.
“Justice Alito was notified in advance by Justice Sotomayor’s chambers that she would be reading a dissent from the bench,” the court spokesperson said in a statement in response to questions from CNN.
“It was a misunderstanding on Justice Alito’s part,” the spokesperson added.
The rare statement came a day after a tense back-and-forth between the two justices when Sotomayor, the court’s senior liberal, publicly read a dissent in a case involving asylum claims. Alito, a conservative who was then set to summarize the next opinion, appeared taken aback by his colleague’s remarks.
“There’s much that I would have added to my bench statement had I known there would be a dissent read,” Alito said, an unusual break from protocol during what is normally a highly choregraphed release of opinions.
