In my Saturday post on the Supreme Court’s emergency order in the wee hours, directing the Trump administration not to deport any more Venezuelan aliens under the Alien Enemies Act until further order of the Court, I noted that there would be a dissent from Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas. We now have Justice Alito’s dissent (filed later on Saturday), and it is, as one would expect, persuasive.
There are also two other developments worth noting. First, late on Friday night, the Fifth Circuit’s denied the ACLU’s motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO); the three-judge panel was composed of two Trump appointees and a Biden appointee, and Justices Alito and Thomas not only endorse its decision but conclude that it deprived the Supreme Court of jurisdiction. Second, Trump Justice Department Solicitor General D. John Sauer took the Supreme Court up on its invitation to file a response to the ACLU’s application for an injunction against the Venezuelans’ deportation, which the Supreme Court’s majority granted in what appeared to be exigent circumstances (the imminent deportation, with only illusory real due process) absent first hearing from the government.
Comments