Supreme Court halted Trump’s Alien Enemies Act deportations, signaling potential judicial resistance despite conservative majority.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued an order early Saturday morning directing President Donald Trump’s administration to pause deportations of Venezuelan detainees under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) of 1798 until further notice, with conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissenting.
With that, legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern suggested on Saturday that this represents a significant judicial challenge to presidential authority, characterizing it on social media platform Bluesky as „potentially a massive signal from the Supreme Court that it is finally prepared to go toe to toe with Trump to halt AEA deportations.“
Newsweek has reached out to the White House via email on Saturday for comment.
U.S. authorities are carrying out an ongoing immigration crackdown under Trump, who has pledged to launch the largest mass deportation operation in the country’s history. Thousands of people have been detained and deported since he took office, and the administration faces several lawsuits over the matter.
The president has said most detentions and deportations would target individuals with criminal records. However, in recent weeks, there have been multiple reports of people without criminal convictions, and some with valid documentation, being detained for deportation.
With Republicans holding a slim majority in the House and Senate, the courts have arguably become the main avenue for challenging the Trump administration’s policy.
Saturday’s ruling is particularly significant since it comes from a Court with a 6-3 conservative majority, including justices appointed during Trump’s first term.
According to Reuters, on Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed an urgent request to the Supreme Court following reports that some of the men had been placed on buses and were about to be deported.
A government lawyer said during the hearing that they weren’t aware of plans to deport the men that day, but that it could happen on Saturday.
