The U.S. Supreme Court is depicted on March 17, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
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The Trump administration requested that the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturn a lower court’s injunction and permit the utilization of the Alien Enemies Act to expeditiously deport purported members of a Venezuelan gang.
Trump invoked the seldom-used wartime authority earlier this month when he ordered over 200 Venezuelan individuals transferred to a maximum-security facility in El Salvador. Nevertheless, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg imposed a temporary halt on employing the Alien Enemies Act. A three-judge panel from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals supported Boasberg’s ruling with a 2-1 decision earlier this week.
“This situation raises essential queries about who holds the authority to manage sensitive national-security operations in our nation—the President, in accordance with Article II, or the judiciary,” Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris stated in the appeal to the Supreme Court. “The Constitution provides a definitive answer: the President. Our republic cannot sustain an alternative decision.”
She remarked that Boasberg’s orders “have countered the President’s assessments regarding how to safeguard the nation from foreign terrorist organizations, potentially undermining delicate international negotiations.”
The American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward launched legal action against the Trump administration concerning its application of the Alien Enemies Act. They argued that the administration removed individuals without affording them due process.
Judge Patricia Millett indicated agreement during oral discussions at the D.C. Circuit this week. “Nazis received better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act than what has been witnessed here,” she commented. “They were given hearing boards before their expulsion.”
The White House claimed the Venezuelans sent to El Salvador were affiliated with Tren de Aragua, a criminal entity labeled by the Trump administration as a foreign terrorist organization. However, the administration has offered scant evidence to substantiate these allegations.
Indeed, the administration acknowledged in legal filings that many of those transported on these flights to El Salvador did not possess criminal records in the U.S. However, they assert that “the absence of specific information regarding each individual actually underscores the threat they present.”
