SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Bid To Resume Swift Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled 7-2 against the Trump administration’s attempt to swiftly deport Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act, requiring officials to provide more than 24 hours for detainees to challenge their removal.

“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 majority wrote.

The unsigned decision clarified that the Court was only ruling on the notice requirement and not whether the Trump administration can use the Alien Enemies Act itself.

“To be clear, we decide today only that the detainees are entitled to more notice than was given on April 18,” the Court stated in its ruling, NBC News reported.

The Alien Enemies Act, enacted in 1798, allows the president to apprehend and deport citizens of a hostile nation during wartime or invasion.

Administration officials argued that Venezuela’s government has used Tren de Aragua as a proxy force, effectively weaponizing the gang to destabilize the United States through criminal activity and drug trafficking.

Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, with Alito writing there were no grounds for the Court to intervene “at such an early stage of the litigation.”

“The Court’s failure to defer to the Executive Branch in immigration matters in which national security is at stake represents an extraordinary departure from our precedents,” Alito wrote.

The Court did acknowledge it was “far removed from the circumstances on the ground” and was not best positioned to determine the exact deportation process that should be followed.

The case has been sent back to an appeals court to establish appropriate due process procedures for the detainees in yet another legal impediment to Trump’s immigration agenda.

President Trump on Friday accused the high court of “being played by the radical left,” who only succeed through “intimidation of the court.”

THE SUPREME COURT IS BEING PLAYED BY THE RADICAL LEFT LOSERS, WHO HAVE NO SUPPORT, THE PUBLIC HATES THEM, AND THEIR ONLY HOPE IS THE INTIMIDATION OF THE COURT, ITSELF. WE CAN’T LET THAT HAPPEN TO OUR COUNTRY!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2025

“Today’s ruling effectively extends the temporary freeze that the justices put on Alien Enemies Act removals from the Northern District of Texas back on April 19,” said Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at Georgetown Law.

“Because lower courts have blocked use of the act in every other district in which the president has sought to invoke it, that means it’s effectively pausing all removals under the act until the 5th Circuit – and, presumably, the Supreme Court itself – conclusively resolves whether they’re legal and how much process is due if so.”