Alito’s testy reaction to Sotomayor underscores tensions at Supreme Court | CNN Politics

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. 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. “There’s much that I would have added to my bench statement had I known there would be a dissent read,” Alito said, barely holding back his ire, after Sotomayor had finished her lengthy statement. Takeaways: Supreme Court hands Trump massive wins on immigration agenda While Thursday’s episode broke the staid decorum at the nation’s highest court, in some ways it was vintage Alito. His conse