Mark Joesph Stern writes:

Shortly before 1 a.m. on Saturday, the Supreme Court issued an emergency order halting the Trump administration’s reported efforts to fly Venezuelan migrants to an El Salvador prison before they could challenge their deportation. The court’s late-night intervention is an extraordinary and highly unusual rebuke to the government, one that may well mark a turning point in the majority’s approach to this administration. For months, SCOTUS has given the government every benefit of the doubt, accepting the Justice Department’s dubious assertions and awarding Trump immense deference. On Saturday, however, a majority of justices signaled that they no longer trust the administration to comply with the law, including the court’s own rulings. If that is indeed the case, we are likely careening toward a head-on conflict between the president and the court, with foundational principles of constitutional democracy hanging in the balance.

SCOTUS’s emergency order in A.A.R.P. v. Trump arose out of the government’s unlawful efforts to ship Venezuelan migrants to a Salvadoran prison by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. On Thursday, lawyers for these individuals told a federal court that the government was preparing to summarily deport them to El Salvador, where they would be indefinitely confined at a notorious detention center. A federal judge in the Southern District of Texas had already blocked their removal—but the government sought to evade this order by busing the migrants into the Northern District of Texas, where the restraining order would not apply. It then gave these migrants “notices,” in English only, declaring that they would be deported immediately, without stating that they could contest their deportations in court. (Officials refused to give these notices, or any other information, to the migrants’ lawyers.) The government intended to fly them out of the country within 24 hours, according to court filings.

This conduct flagrantly violated the Supreme Court’s decision from just 12 days ago affording the migrants substantial due process protections. The court unanimously agreed that these individuals “must receive notice” that “they are subject to removal,” and that this notice “must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek” relief. Obviously, giving Spanish speakers a barebones “notice” in English that they will be deported does not comply with this mandate. But when the migrants’ attorneys sought court intervention, the Justice Department responded as it so often does these days: by lying. Despite extensive evidence to the contrary, DOJ lawyers told multiple courts that they did not intend to deport migrants on Friday or Saturday, and that they would not deport anyone without affording them the due process guaranteed by SCOTUS. Two different federal judges declined to step in on Friday night, finding they did not have authority to do so.

The ACLU then begged the Supreme Court for help. And the court obliged. The majority directed the government “not to remove” any of the individuals seeking relief “until further of this court.” As a result, the government was unable to deport the migrants to El Salvador—as it appeared about to do—and they remain in U.S. custody. Only Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas noted their dissents. [Continue reading…]

Politico reports:

The White House slammed the flood of lawsuits against its deportation agenda following a Supreme Court ruling that will temporarily block its efforts to deport Venezuelan nationals in Texas under the Alien Enemies Act.

The rebuke of the litigation — and the Trump administration’s claims that it is following the rule of law — comes amid an onslaught of criticism from Democrats and legal experts who have blasted President Donald Trump for igniting what they have described as a growing constitutional crisis that threatens the due process of immigrants across the country.

“We are confident in the lawfulness of the Administration’s actions and in ultimately prevailing against an onslaught of meritless litigation brought by radical activists who care more about the rights of terrorist aliens than those of the American people,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told POLITICO in a statement. [Continue reading…]