Supreme Court defeats Trump administration in case involving the Alien Enemies Act.
A person walks past the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 21, 2025. Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
The Supreme Court on Friday granted a request by Venezuelan nationals seeking to block their removal from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act.
In a 7-2 decision, the court stated that the Trump administration had not provided the detainees with sufficient time or adequate resources to contest their deportations. “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,” the ruling said.
The justices prohibited the removal of the men, whom the Trump administration alleges are affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, pending a new decision from a lower federal appellate court. However, they noted, “the Government may remove the named plaintiffs or putative class members under other lawful authorities.”
President Donald Trump expressed his frustration with the ruling on Friday afternoon. “THE SUPREME COURT WON’T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!” he posted on Truth Social. In a subsequent message, he complained that the court was hindering his ability to fulfill his elected duties.
“Sleepy Joe Biden allowed MILLIONS of Criminal Aliens to come into our Country without any ‘PROCESS,’ but, in order to get them out, we must go through a long and extended PROCESS,” Trump wrote. “This is a bad and dangerous day for America!”
The court acknowledged that the interests of the Venezuelans are “particularly weighty,” pointing out that the government is currently arguing it cannot “provide for the return” of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported in error to a prison in El Salvador.
The justices did not evaluate whether the Alien Enemies Act, invoked by the Trump administration in mid-April to deport the detainees, was applied correctly. “To be clear, we decide today only that the detainees are entitled to more notice than was given on April 18,” their ruling stated.
They clarified that they were granting only temporary relief while the case returns to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to determine how much notice those targeted for removal are entitled to receive.
“We recognize the significance of the Government’s national security interests as well as the necessity that such interests be pursued in a manner consistent with the Constitution,” the majority wrote. “In light of the foregoing, lower courts should address AEA cases expeditiously.”
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the opinion, questioning whether the detainees were in “imminent danger of removal,” and described it as “misleading” to assert that a U.S. District Court in Texas failed to act quickly enough. “The Court characterizes the District Court’s behavior during the period in question as ‘inaction,’ but in my judgment, that is unfair,” wrote Alito in the dissent joined by Thomas.
Trump first invoked the AEA against Tren de Aragua in mid-March, claiming in an executive proclamation that the gang is “perpetrating an invasion” into the U.S. This proclamation stated that any Venezuelan over 14 years of age who belonged to the gang and was not a naturalized or lawful resident was subject to removal and “chargeable with actual hostility against the United States.”
On Friday morning, Trump vented his frustration with the high court, writing that it “IS BEING PLAYED BY THE RADICAL LEFT LOSERS,” whose “ONLY HOPE IS THE INTIMIDATION OF THE COURT.” This comment came the day after the justices heard oral arguments in a case related to Trump’s controversial executive order ending birthright citizenship.
