Disagreements between Supreme Court justices bubble into public view as major rulings loom

WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The is handing down major opinions at a rapid clip, but even with some of the biggest decisions yet to come there are signs of tension between the justices.

One highly unusual exchange for the restrained and traditional atmosphere came Thursday, as the members of the nation鈥檚 highest court took the bench as usual to read a short summary of their decisions. Those rulings included two major immigration wins for President Donald Trump.

After conservative Justice Samuel Alito finished his reading of the majority鈥檚 ruling limiting how people can seek asylum at the southern border, liberal Sonia Sotomayor spoke up to read from her scorching dissent.

She traced the difficult journey many asylum seekers face and outlined a painful chapter in the country鈥檚 history: When the U.S. and other countries turned back a ship full of Jewish refugees attempting to flee persecution in Nazi Germany in 1939. About 250 of those passengers later died in the Holocaust.

Sotomayor said the majority鈥檚 opinion would allow the Trump administration to block people from applying for asylum at the border, which would result in more deaths. The decision 鈥渞egrettably and tragically extinguishes the light of the torch of the Statue of Liberty.鈥�

Justice Brett Kavanaugh watched her intently as she spoke, while Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson looked straight ahead.

Majority opinions are always read from the bench and dissenters can speak up as well to underscore their objections, which typically happens in few cases every term. More rulings are expected on Monday.

Sotomayor鈥檚 spoken dissent, however, appeared to be a surprise for Alito. In a very rare move, he spoke off the cuff. He sounded annoyed, saying he did not know she was going to be speaking and would have added more detail to his summary if he’d been aware.

For the conservative majority, the case was about whether border officials can delay asylum seekers鈥� entry into the U.S. 鈥渦ntil they can be processed in a safe and orderly way.鈥�

Out loud, Alito defended his opinion by noting that the policy at the center of the case had been used under both the Obama and Trump administrations. 鈥淚 won鈥檛 add anything more to that,鈥� he said.

The exchange comes as the court prepares to release opinions next week on some of the biggest issues of the term, and Trump鈥檚 presidency so far. Those include his push to restrict birthright citizenship and expand the president鈥檚 power to fire board members at independent agencies.

It isn鈥檛 the first time unusual tensions have surfaced this term. Sotomayor issued a in April to another justice, Brett Kavanaugh, for what she termed 鈥渉urtful comments.鈥� She had said during a law school talk that a colleague 鈥減robably doesn鈥檛 really know any person who works by the hour.鈥�

In another public appearance in March, Kavanaugh and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson the many emergency orders the court had issued allowing Trump to move ahead with key parts of his agenda.