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Listen to Justice Alito Absolutely Hammer the Lawyer for Haitian Nationals

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  April 30, 2026 9:00 AM

Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two consolidated cases about the Trump administration's efforts to end protections for Haitian and Syrian nationals. 

During the oral arguments, Justice Samuel Alito absolutely destroyed a lawyer for the Haitian nationals after that lawyer claimed ending their legal status is racist.

"The Arlington Heights framework exists precisely for the purpose of sussing out whether impermissible racial consideration were part of, were impermissibly in the mix," said Attorney Geoffrey Pipoly.

"Isn't it the case that TPS was terminated for quite a list of countries? I can't seem to find the particular page of the transcript where the District Court goes through them all, and, yes, none of those is a Nordic country," Justice Alito said.

"But, and I don't like dividing up the people of the world arbitrarily into three racial groups, but you say they're all non-white, and that's the distinguishing characteristic?" Alito asked.

"That is the distinguishing characteristic that the district court held," replied Pipoly, but I would emphasize Justice Alito," he continued.

But Justice Alito interrupted, "But do you think that if you put Syrians, Turks, Greeks, and other people who live around the Mediterranean in a lineup, do you think you could say those people are, that all of them, are they all non-white?"

"I understand that Syrians, I think, may be classified as white for purposes of the State Department," said Pipoly. "But again, I think race is ... you'd have to poll the public to know what they think the race of a Syrian is. I certainly think they're not white."

"Poll the American people?" Justice Alito asked. "Do they think Syrians are white?" 

"I wouldn't think that most would, Justice Alito," said Pipoly.

"Really?" Justice Alito replied. "How about Turks?"

"I honestly haven't considered what racial component I would sort Turks into," said Pipoly.

"How about Greeks?" asked Justice Alito.

"I don't know the answer to that, either," replied Pipoly. 

Justice Alito continued his line of questioning. "How about Southern Italians?" There was laughter in the courtroom at this question.

"Well, certainly 120 years ago when we had our last wave of European immigration, southern Italians were not considered white," said Pipoly, "so I think our concept of these things evolves over time."

"How about Spaniards?" Justice Alito asked.

"I think same answer. About 120 years ago, I don't think they were considered white," replied Pipoly.

"You have a really large ... broad definition of who's white and who's not white," Justice Alito said. "As I said, I don't like dividing the people of the world into these groups."

"I understand," said Pipoly. "I would say that even under this court's rationality jurisprudence, if you look at cases like Moreno, it is not necessary for us to get strict scrutiny to win here because, irrespective of how you do the classification at issue here ... under those precedents, bare dislike of an unpopular group is a sufficient basis to find that rational is not even satisfied."

Because they're the racist ones.

That changed, didn't it?

It is kind of crazy.

Yes, he did.