Sat May 17 14:20:00 UTC 2025: **Supreme Court Blocks Trump’s Use of Alien Enemies Act for Deportations**
**Washington, D.C.** – In a significant setback for the Trump administration, the Supreme Court on Friday halted deportations under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act targeting a group of Venezuelan immigrants in northern Texas. The court sided with the immigrants who feared imminent removal under the sweeping wartime authority, a move President Trump sought to expedite deportations and bypass standard review processes.
The ruling is temporary, sending the case back to the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals to decide on the legality of the president’s invocation of the Act and the level of notice migrants should receive.
The court’s unsigned opinion criticized the Trump administration’s handling of the removals, particularly the 24-hour notice devoid of information about due process rights. The court referenced a previous case where an individual was mistakenly deported to El Salvador and the administration was unable to provide for his return.
Justices Thomas and Alito dissented, with Alito arguing that the high court had wrongly intervened and criticized the court for telling the appeals court how to handle the case before it was fully handled by the district court.
Justice Kavanaugh concurred but suggested the court should have immediately taken up the case for a final resolution.
Lower courts nationwide have been grappling with the Alien Enemies Act following a previous Supreme Court order requiring cases to be filed in separate district courts. Federal courts in multiple states have issued temporary or permanent orders blocking the administration from using the law.
Trump, in a social media post, claimed the Supreme Court “WON’T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY.”
The ACLU, representing the migrants, hailed the ruling as an extension of the temporary freeze on Alien Enemies Act removals and said lower courts blocked use of the act in every other district.
First Piper 