Supreme Court allows Venezuelan deportations to continue, but with due process
The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision Monday evening allowed Trump to resume deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act, but said detainees must be given due process to challenge their removal.
The unsigned per curiam opinion said a federal district court in Washington lacks the jurisdiction to address the matter, lifting a temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg.
The migrants "claims fall within the core of the writ of habeas corpus and thus must be brought in habeas," the court said.
Four justices dissented: Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Amy Coney Barrett.
The court's majority made clear, however, that migrants removed under the AEA authority must be given notice and "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."
Sotomayor, in a dissent joined by Kagan, Jackson and Barrett, called the decision "suspect" and without any "mention of the grave harm Plaintiffs will face if they are erroneously removed to El Salvador or regard for the Government’s attempts to subvert the judicial process throughout this litigation."
"The Government’s conduct in this litigation poses an extraordinary threat to the rule of law," Sotomayor writes. "That a majority of this Court now rewards the Government for its behavior with discretionary equitable relief is indefensible. We, as a Nation and a court of law, should be better than this. I respectfully dissent."
-ABC News’ Devin Dwyer
