#SupremeCourt Allows #Trump to Use 1798 Wartime Law to #Deport People
The nation's highest court backed Trump's use of the #AlienEnemiesAct to speed up #deportations
by Charisma Madarang, April 8, 2025
"The Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a massive win on Monday, voting 5-4 to allow his administration to continue rapidly deporting alleged gang members using the Alien Enemies Act.
The law, passed in 1798, gives presidents the authority to remove foreign nationals over the age of 14 from countries where the United States is either engaged in a declared war or subject to “invasion or predatory incursion” by their country of origin. The act has been invoked three times in U.S. history, each time during wartime, and is meant to counter the actions of foreign governments and regimes, not alleged criminals, gangs, or non-state actors. The law was also used to justify Japanese internment during WWII, and now, the Trump administration is using it to justify its deportations.
In an unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court tossed a district court decision that had temporarily blocked President Trump’s attempt to continue using the 227-year-old law after he sent almost 300 Venezuelan migrants to a notorious prison in #ElSalvador, known for human rights abuses.
"All nine justices agreed, however, that anyone the administration is seeking to deport under the Alien Enemies Act must receive notice of deportation and be given the opportunity to challenge the removal through '#habeas petitions' — meaning that migrants have the right to have their detention or deportation reviewed by the federal court, but only for themselves and in the area where they are being detained.
"The court’s three liberal justices dissented from the ruling, while Justice #AmyConeyBarrett, who was appointed by Trump, partially dissented. Barrett joined Justice #SoniaSotomayor’s dissent calling the majority’s legal conclusion 'suspect' and questioning if habeas claims should be the only way to contest deportations under the act.
"'The Court’s legal conclusion is suspect,' wrote #Sotomayor. 'The Court intervenes anyway, granting the Government extraordinary relief and vacating the District Court’s order on that basis alone.'"
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/BJSoh
#ICEDetention #IllegalDeportations #SecretPolice #HumanRightsViolations #ConstitutionalRights #HumanRights #SCOTUSIsCompromised #SCOTUSIsCorrupt #USPol #ForcedDisappearances #MemoryHoled #1798AlienEnemiesAct
#DemocracyNow: “Detained Without Evidence”: Maryland Father Remains in #ElSalvador Prison After #SCOTUS Ruling
Story April 08, 2025
"The Supreme Court has paused a lower court order that instructed the Trump administration to immediately bring back a U.S. #LegalResident who was 'mistakenly' sent to #ElSalvador, giving the court more time to deliberate on the case. #KilmarAbregoGarcia, who was expelled from the U.S. on March 15 despite holding protected status, will continue to languish under dangerous conditions in a Salvadoran maximum-security prison. The Trump administration claims it’s powerless to bring him back to his family in Maryland.
"'They have dug in their heels at every step of the way,' says Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, about the government’s defense. 'It’s ridiculous that this case is at the Supreme Court at all.'
"Behind Abrego Garcia’s ICE arrest and removal is Trump’s invocation of the #1798AlienEnemiesAct, a wartime authority last deployed during #WorldWarII. In a separate ruling, the Supreme Court has approved of the Trump administration’s removals of #Venezuelan #immigrants, but said that those targeted must be given an opportunity to challenge their removal. So far, immigrants expelled to El Salvador have been largely denied their legal rights and detained without clear evidence.
"They are then incarcerated in the country’s '#MegaPrisons,' where [#HumanRights] abuses have flourished under El Salvador’s 'state of exception.' 'These conditions constitute, under international law, #ForcedDisappearances,' says Noah Bullock, executive director of Cristosal, a human rights organization in @CentralAmerica."
Listen / watch / read transcript:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/8/supreme_court_el_salvador_ice
#ViewerSupportedNews #ICEDetention #IllegalDeportations #SecretPolice #HumanRightsViolations #ConstitutionalRights #HumanRights #SCOTUSIsCompromised #SCOTUSIsCorrupt
Clarence Thomas Faces Recusal Call From Democrats After Wife's Comment
Story by Kaitlin Lewis
September 10, 2024
"Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have called on #SupremeCourt Justice #ClarenceThomas to recuse himself from cases involving a religious legal group after his wife reportedly thanked the conservative organization for its efforts to block Supreme Court reform.
"Thomas, a conservative appointed by former President #GeorgeHWBush in 1991, has been one of the justices at the center of calls for court reform after it was revealed that he has accepted millions of dollars in gifts from some top #RepublicanDonors without disclosing the items and #LuxuryVacations to the court. Questions of Thomas' impartiality were also raised after his wife, conservative activist Ginni Thomas, pressured officials to overturn the 2020 election results in favor of former President Donald Trump.
"Investigative outlet #ProPublica first reported last week that #GinniThomas recently praised conservative legal group #FirstLibertyInstitute in an email to the firm's president and CEO, Kelly Shackelford, for the organization's work in opposing change to the High Court."
#ImpeachClarenceThomas
#ArrestGinniThomas #ImpeachClarenceThomasYesterday #ImpeachJusticeThomas
#ScotusIsCorrupt #SCOTUS #ErikPrince #January6 #HeritageFoundation #Project2025 #Blackwater #Academi #Theocracy #Fascism #CriminalizingDissent #CorporateColonialism #SLAPPs #BigOilAndGas #StandWithStandingRock
#ScotusIsCorrupt
IMO I don't need to see the justices' tax returns, but the IRS should treat them AS IF no one is above the law.
Justice Thomas Failed To Report Additional Gifts: Report
A bombshell new New York Times report puts even more scrutiny on the Supreme Court Justice
"Thomas and his wife took a round trip flight between Hawaii and New Zealand in 2010 on Crow's private jet. That trip had not been previously disclosed"
#SCOTUSIsCorrupt
https://meidasnews.com/news/justice-thomas-failed-to-report-additional-gifts-report
Warren Introduces Bill Effectively Overturning Extremist SCOTUS “Chevron” Ruling
The Stop Corporate Capture Act will bring transparency and efficiency to the federal rulemaking process, and most importantly, will make sure corporate interest groups can’t substitute their preferences for the judgment of Congress and the expert agencies.” https://truthout.org/articles/warren-introduces-bill-effectively-overturning-extremist-scotus-chevron-ruling/ #chevrondeference #ScotusIsCorrupt #StopCorporateCaptureAct
After 4-years, Trump got himself a majority on SCOTUS & some key judges in his pocket. What would America be like if he had another 4?
Allan has predicted 9 out of 10 of our last elections, the 1 he missed was handed to Bush via SCOTUS. And nobody saw that coming except those of us who understood then that #SCOTUS6 #SCOTUSIsCorrupt
Allan Lichtman @AllanLichtman
"If Democrats hope to retain the White House in November, they need to support Joe Biden!"
#PresidentialElection2024 #Trump #BidenHarris #democracy
Here is one way to understand The United States today. A group of wealthy people were deeply unhappy about democratic institutions holding them accountable. So they set out to make them less democratic and less powerful. They used their money to make money the most essential currency in this democracy, more important than votes.
How did they succeed?
They realized that politicians, while valuable, could be unreliable. Better to capture the least democratically accountable seat of public power — the courts — and use that to weaken public oversight over their interests.
#uspol #uspolitics #uspoli #Corruption #SCOTUSIsCorrupt #corrupt #scotus #fascism
The Constitution & the Supreme Court
The Fall of the American Republic?
I know that I am still out-of-sorts from hours of driving and socializing on Independence Day. I know that I am feeling the emotional and physical toll of that exertion.
And I know that the news from Washington is as depressing as any in my life. I have lived through the Vietnam War (I am just a bit too young to remember the Kennedy assassination), I remember the assassinations of MLK, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy and the violent upheavals that followed, I recall the constitutional crisis brought about by Nixon at the Watergate Hotel, the SCOTUS Bush v. Gore decision, extra-judicial killings of BIPOC by police, the debacle of the Trump presidency, and much more.
But sitting here, thinking back on the last six decades, I can truly say that the constitutional crisis created by six traitorous Supreme Court justices this week is unprecedented. Past decisions paved the way, but Trump v. United States (2024) is the case that finally destroyed almost all hope for democracy in these United States.
Why do I say that? What was the decision? In a nutshell, a majority of the highest court in the land has declared that the President is in fact above the law, and subject to no effective checks and balances by Congress or the courts.
How does this decision affect me or affect you? How long will the fall of our Republic take? It has been tipping over for years, but that fall is now nearly inevitable and accelerating. Most likely, the changes will continue to have their worst impacts on our already marginalized citizens: BIPOC, LGBTQIA, those of us with disabilities, women, and others. But rest assured that everyone else is going to suffer too.
I cannot predict the future if this decision is allowed to stand, but I can say that it is unlikely to be a rosy one.
I wish that I believed that anyone in the Biden administration truly understood the catastrophic constitutional crisis that this legal decision has brought about. The Constitution has been broken, and we have exactly one chance to either fix it or consign it to the dustbin of history. The nature of a true constitutional crisis is that the constitution itself has no mechanisms for fixing this egregious error. Fortunately, in this case, those six justices have given President Biden the power to do what needs to be done to restore our Constitutional form of government.
The rules have now changed. This is no longer a two-party political power game. Those six justices on the Supreme Court have placed the office of the President above the law, with the power to do whatever the President chooses, with no consequences. Who will seize these new powers first? Will they use them to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, or will they use them to loot the Treasury, install themself as dictator-for-life, and end the Republic?
Will President Biden or President Harris use this new immunity to take the distasteful steps necessary to ensure a return to the rule of law, by removing the offenders and allowing a new Supreme Court to restore our constitution and forever ensure that no President is above the law? Or will they sit back and allow Donald Trump to declare himself President, ensuring that we never again have free and fair elections, or even a President, merely a self-anointed sovereign?
I do not know the answers to these questions, but I fear that the Democratic Party and the current President are unable to see this bigger picture. It is too late for taking half measures or adopting a wait and see approach to saving our Republic.
President Biden, I implore you to use the new freedoms that the Supreme Court has given you to rid us of this meddlesome crook, reconstitute a legitimate Supreme Court, and undo this travesty of justice. If you are unable or unwilling to take the bold steps necessary, I urge you to step down and allow an ascendant President Harris to restore our Republic.
To be clear, the 2024 presidential campaign and election is meaningless until we resolve this constitutional crisis. Until adequate checks and balances on the chief executive’s power have been brought back, free and fair elections are neither possible nor necessary. I believe that Joseph Biden has the integrity to put things right. Perhaps Kamala Harris does as well. Donald Trump does not.
So, what’s it gonna be, Joe? Will you go down in history as the President who saved the Republic and defended the Constitution, or will you be forever demonized in history books written by the lackeys of a triumphant Dictator Trump. I know that it is a heart-wrenching decision, choosing to bend the Constitution to save it. But consider the alternative: strictly following a now broken constitution will allow it to crumble into dust.
President Biden, I believe you have the integrity to resolve this crisis.
Help us Joe Biden. You’re our only hope.
SCOTUS made up new notions of core official & peripheral official Presidential acts, giving absolute immunity for crimes to the 1st & near absolute immunity to the 2nd.
SCOTUS is taking us back 365 years:
John Roberts of the US Supreme Court wrote in 2024, "unlike anyone else, the president is a branch of government."