For the second time in a week, all nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court have rejected a sweeping assertion of executive power made by President Donald Trump in a case arising from Trump's unilateral efforts to deport aliens from the United States.
The first rejection came on April 7, when the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that all deportees under the Alien Enemies Act must be afforded due process of law, including "notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal." That was a clear repudiation of Trump's claim that the Alien Enemies Act allowed him to summarily deport alleged members of a Venezuelan street gang without due process and judicial review. But as Justice Brett Kavanaugh observed in concurrence in Trump v. J.G.G., "all nine Members of the Court agree that judicial review is available."
The second rejection came on April 10, when a unanimous Supreme Court let stand, in part, a lower court order which directed the Trump administration to "facilitate and effectuate the return…to the United States" of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a man whom the U.S. government admitted to unlawfully deporting to a Salvadoran prison because of an "administrative error."
