By Molly Claire Goddard
1:52am PDT, May 20, 2025
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The Supreme Court is pausing one of
Donald Trump's deportation actions.
In an unsigned Friday, May 16, order, the judges ruled the current commander-in-chief cannot use the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to ship a group of alleged Venezuelan gang members out of the United States without a lower court deciding on how far in advance they should have been notified about their possible deportations.
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In the recent ruling, the Supreme Court determined the alleged gang members currently being held in a Texas prison should remain in the United States while the case goes back to the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to make the ultimate decision.
On Saturday, April 19, the judges also blocked Donald Trump and his administration's use of the 1798 law, to send people out of the country without due process.
"We did not on April 19 — and do not now — address the underlying merits of the parties' claims regarding the legality of removals under the AEA," the recent opinion made clear.
However, they also stated the government could still
deport the individuals "under other lawful authorities" if they were truly a threat to America.
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The Supreme Court claimed part of their reasoning for the ruling was Donald Trump and his administration's refusal to return wrongfully deported MS-13 gang member
Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States.
"The Government has represented elsewhere that it is unable to provide for the return of an individual deported in error to a prison in El Salvador where it is alleged that detainees face indefinite detention," they stated. "The [Texas] detainees' interests at stake are accordingly particularly weighty. Under these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster."
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Despite the strong ruling, conservative
justices Samuel Alito and
Clarence Thomas issued dissents from the order.
"From the Court's order, it is not entirely clear whether the Court has silently decided issues that go beyond the question of interim relief. (I certainly hope that it has not.)," Alito penned. "But if it has done so, today's order is doubly extraordinary. Granting certiorari before a court of appeals has entered a judgment is a sharp departure from usual practice, but here neither the Court of Appeals nor the District Court has decided any merits questions."
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Following the ruling, Donald Trump took to his Truth Social account on Friday, May 16, to rage against the Supreme Court.
"The Supreme Court has just ruled that the worst murderers, drug dealers, gang members and even those who are mentally insane, who came into our country illegally, are not allowed to be forced out without going through a long, protracted and expensive legal process, one that will take, possibly, many years for each person and one that will allow these people to commit many crimes before they even see the inside of a Courthouse," he alleged.
The Republican leader even went on to blame former president Joe Biden and praised Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas for their dissents from the order.
"The result of this decision will let more CRIMINALS pour into our country, doing great harm to our cherished American public. It will also encourage other criminals to illegally enter our Country, wreaking havoc and bedlam wherever they go. The Supreme Court of the United States is not allowing me to do what I was elected to do. Sleepy Joe Biden allowed MILLIONS of Criminal Aliens to come into our Country without any 'PROCESS' but, in order to get them out of our country, we have to go through a long and extended PROCESS. In any event, thank you to Justice Alito and Justice Thomas for attempting to protect our Country. This is a bad and dangerous day for America!" Trump concluded.
