The Supreme Court has blocked President Donald Trump's plan to deport Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador—for now.
In an overnight emergency order issued just before 1 a.m. on Saturday, the high court thwarted the Trump administration’s attempts to use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to conduct mass deportation flights from a Texas migrant detention center.
“The Government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court,” the justices wrote, with conservative justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, and Brett M. Kavanaugh breaking ranks to side with their liberal peers. Conservative stalwarts Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
ADVERTISEMENT
The ruling comes after two Trump-appointed judges, Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, refused to pause any deportations under the obscure 1798 Act, which was last used widely during World War II to expel nationals of enemy states.
However, the High Court’s order supersedes that ruling and applies to any migrant detained in the Northern District of Texas who would be removed under the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act—which Trump first invoked in a March 15 executive order. The Court’s ruling does not apply in other jurisdictions.
“The matter is currently pending before the Fifth Circuit,” the justices wrote, referencing an appeal by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to stop deportations. Late Friday, the organization requested an emergency injunction and stay of removal from SCOTUS, fearing that deportations were imminent, NPR reported. The ACLU also requested that migrants deported under the Alien Enemies Act be given at least 30 days’ advance notice.
The justices added, “Upon action by the Fifth Circuit, the Solicitor General is invited to file a response to the application before this Court as soon as possible.”
Court Blocked
The Court’s order marked the second blow dealt to the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda in just over a week.
The justices ruled 9-0 that the Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of a Maryland father wrongly deported to El Salvador on Thursday. Yet Trump’s continued defiance of the order has deepened a growing power struggle between Trump and the justices after the high court granted him broad immunity for official presidential acts last year.
The Trump administration’s disregard for lower courts has also heightened fears of a constitutional crisis, Fortune reported.
“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general on how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal,” Vance claimed in a February X post. “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
Leading up to the Court’s order, the ACLU requested that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, an Obama appointee, block the deportations. However, Boasberg ruled Friday that he had no jurisdiction over the matter.
“I am sympathetic to everything you’re saying, I just don’t think I have the power to do anything,” Boasberg said during the hearing.
