Roberts Weighs In

The Supreme Court tossed on Monday a series of restraining orders that barred the Trump administration from removing people under the Alien Enemies Act, in a 5-4 decision decided largely over whether the case was brought in the right place and form.

The Court held that challenges to removals under the Alien Enemies Act must be brought as habeas corpus petitions. The majority held short of ruling on thornier questions of whether the act applies to those already removed and on the scope of the judiciary’s ability to review challenges to the law.

Justices in the majority did address some of what made the Trump administration’s removals of more than two hundred Venezuelans to an El Salvador labor camp so unprecedented: they were taken out of the country without any review or due process, at a level of extreme haste that almost certainly resulted in people who had no connection to Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang against which the Trump administration made a dubious proclamation of enemy invasion, being deported.

The Court mandated that the government provide a minimum opportunity for due process to those slated to be removed under the law. The government must notify detainees that they’re subject to removal, the Court said, with enough time as to allow them to file habeas corpus claims challenging their deportation.