The Supreme Court on Monday threw out the order of a federal judge who had blocked the removal of men alleged to be members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador without any legal process under the Alien Enemies Act.
The 5-4 ruling essentially clears the path for the Trump administration to resume deportations under the rarely used wartime law, so long as detainees are given due process. That means they must be given time to challenge their detentions and make the administration prove the legality of their confinements.
“AEA detainees must receive notice after the date of this order that they are subject to removal under the Act. The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs,” the court wrote in its majority opinion.
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The decision lifts orders issued by Washington-based U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who blocked the move on March 15, while litigation continues. The original lawsuit was filed by five Venezuelans, with Boasberg provisionally certifying it as a class action that applies to all Venezuelans in U.S. custody who are not U.S. citizens.
So far, Boasberg had issued only a temporary restraining order. He had also scheduled a hearing for Tuesday to decide whether to impose a longer-term preliminary injunction.
Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissent: “The Government’s conduct in this litigation poses an extraordinary threat to the rule of law. We, as a Nation and a court of law, should be better than this.”
Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson spoke to the historic nature of the ruling’s being issued Monday before Boasberg has even held a hearing on a preliminary injunction.
“With more and more of our most significant rulings taking place in the shadows of our emergency docket, today’s Court leaves less and less of a trace. But make no mistake: We are just as wrong now as we have been in the past, with similarly devastating consequences. It just seems we are now less willing to face it,” she wrote.
“At least when the Court went off base in the past, it left a record so posterity could see how it went wrong,” she added, citing the notorious ruling that allowed government confinement of Japanese Americans during World War II.
The government previously indicated in court that if Boasberg’s order was lifted, it would immediately begin deportations. On March 26, a federal appeals court voted 2-1 to decline an earlier request to block Boasberg’s decision.
Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the ruling on X.
“An activist judge in Washington, DC does not have the jurisdiction to seize control of President Trump’s authority to conduct foreign policy and keep the American people safe,” Bondi wrote.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also lauded the ruling.
“Today’s SCOTUS ruling is a victory for commonsense security— an activist judge cannot stop the will of the American people for a safe and secure homeland,” she said in a post on X.
Both sides claimed a level of victory.
Lee Gelernt, lead attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who argued on behalf of the plaintiffs who were deported, said overall they were pleased with the court’s ruling.
“We are disappointed that we will need to start the court process over again in a different venue, but the critical point is that the Court rejected the government’s remarkable position that it does not even have to give individuals meaningful advance notice to challenge their removal under the Alien Enemies Act,” he said in a statement. “That is a big victory.”
The fast-moving case concerns Trump’s aggressive and unprecedented use of presidential power in invoking an 18th century law called the Alien Enemies Act, which has been used only when the country was at war.
“This case presents fundamental questions about who decides how to conduct sensitive national-security-related operations in this country,” acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in her request for the Supreme Court to intervene. “The Constitution supplies a clear answer: the president.”
The Trump administration announced in February that it had determined that Tren de Aragua was a terrorist organization and that its members had infiltrated the United States. The administration, in a move that has been contested, says the group is effectively an arm of the Venezuelan government, which is led by President Nicolás Maduro.
Trump then invoked the Alien Enemies Act, which can be used only when there are “invasions of predatory incursions.”
By making those findings, the Trump administration concluded that Tren de Aragua members could be immediately detained and deported without an opportunity for judges to determine whether the Alien Enemies Act applied or whether the people involved were even members of the gang. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the government’s points-based method for identifying whether people are members is seriously flawed, relying in part on whether they have tattoos, leading in some cases to non-gang members’ being targeted.
The administration has argued that the Alien Enemies Act gives the president almost unfettered power to remove designated immigrants at short notice despite the constitutional protection of due process.
A key issue in the case, therefore, is whether courts have any role to play in assessing whether the law is being lawfully applied.
The government argues that the only way detainees can challenge potential deportation is to file separate habeas corpus claims in the jurisdictions where they are held.
The Venezuelan plaintiffs argued in their own filing that the implications of the government’s argument are “staggering” because it could allow officials to target a disfavored immigrant group on a whim.
A decision for the government would “allow the government to immediately begin whisking away anyone else it unilaterally declares to be a member of a criminal gang to a brutal foreign prison,” they said.
They also noted that Boasberg’s decision did not require any currently detained immigrants to be released or prevent deportations under different legal authorities. In fact, the Trump administration has continued to deport other immigrants to El Salvador.
Boasberg’s intervention prompted a barrage of hostile commentary from Trump and his allies, with Trump and others calling for the Boasberg to be impeached. That prompted a swift rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts.
Concerns were also raised about whether the administration had violated a verbal order from Boasberg in court that planes carrying alleged gang members turn around and return to the United States. Two flights subsequently landed in Honduras and El Salvador.
Until Trump’s announcement, the Alien Enemies Act had been invoked only during three major wars: the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.
