Justice Samuel Alito protests that the U.S. Supreme Court acted "hastily and prematurely" when it issued an unusual late-night order on Friday blocking the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to carry out a new batch of deportations. "I refused to join the Court's order," Alito wrote in dissent in A.A.R.P. v. Trump, "because we had no good reason to think that, under the circumstances, issuing an order at midnight was necessary or appropriate."
Notably, only Justice Clarence Thomas joined Alito's dissent. Which raises the obvious question: Why did the other seven justices—including all three justices appointed by President Donald Trump—decide that the midnight order was necessary and appropriate?
Before tackling that question, it's worth recounting how we got here. On April 7, the Supreme Court unanimously held in Trump v. J.G.G. that all deportees under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) must be afforded due process, including "notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal." Specifically, according to the Court's order, "AEA detainees must receive notice after the date of this order that they are subject to removal under the Act. The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs."
