The Supreme Court barred the Trump administration from quickly resuming deportations of Venezuelans under an 18th-century wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which was enacted when the nation was young.
The court responded to an emergency appeal from lawyers representing Venezuelan men accused of being gang members, a classification that the administration argued made them eligible for rapid deportation under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
The big picture: The court extended the prohibition on deportations from a north Texas detention facility indefinitely until the case goes back to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which previously declined to intervene in April.
- President Donald Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with the Supreme Court’s decision through his Truth Social platform, criticizing the inability to remove alleged criminals from the country.
Go deeper: This ruling marks a setback in the Trump administration’s efforts to expedite deportations of individuals residing in the U.S. unlawfully, with concerns raised about providing due process to individuals accused of violating immigration laws.
- The case pertains to Trump’s proclamation declaring the Tren de Aragua gang a foreign terrorist organization in March, which led to the invocation of the 1798 law to deport people.
- The focus of the high court case is on individuals’ rights to contest their removal from the U.S., rather than determining the appropriateness of Trump’s use of the law invoking national security interests.
- Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the majority opinion, with Alito criticizing the departure from typical practices and the lack of an appeals court ruling in the decision’s process.
- Justice Brett Kavanaugh, while agreeing with the majority, expressed a preference for the nation’s highest court to provide a definitive resolution promptly rather than returning the case to an appeals court, given the urgency of the circumstances.
