A Donald Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas ruled that the president unlawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act and blocked the administration from quickly deporting some alleged members of a Venezuelan gang.
US District Judge Fernando Rodriguez of the Southern District of Texas said Trump had unlawfully invoked the sweeping 18th century wartime authority to speed up some deportations. His decision means Trump cannot rely on the law to detain or deport any alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua within his district.
The ruling is a significant blow to Trump’s decision in March to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, which has faced numerous legal challenges and has been halted by several courts. But Rodriguez’s ruling is the first to conclude that the president exceeded his authority by relying on a law that was intended to be used during times when the US is at war.
Yeah, no shit, anybody saying otherwise is making a bad faith argument.
Most of the other relief sought in the various federal court districts pertaining to the removal cases under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) have mostly focused on obtaining a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to prevent the named individuals from being imminently removed from the jurisdiction of the courts. And that makes sense since a condition where the court would lose jurisdiction is exactly what a TRO’s “preservation of the status quo” is meant for.
But as Steve Vladeck (blog, or BlueSky, or via fediverse bridge) opined today, this is the first court to address the validity of the root authority to invoke the AEA in the first place. Naturally, the administration will likely appeal the ruling once it’s finalized as a Permanent Injunction (PI), but it may prove useful to other people in the meantime.
That is to say, while the preceding districts didn’t look into the root question of the AEA’s invocation, the door is now open for a future district to arrive at the same conclusion re: authority, which could speed up future grants of TROs or even Motions for Summary Judgement (MSJ) that would immediately lose the case for the administration.
Still, this is something which really ought to be handled once: it shouldn’t be necessary for all 94 federal district courts to individually reach a conclusion about the same set of facts. Nationwide injunctive relief – while recognizing that they should be very rare – would be very welcome right about now.
Direct link (PDF) to the ruling, mirrored from PACER by non-profit Free Law Project’s CourtListener.
And I found that link from a Politico legal affairs reporter on BlueSky, that showed up in my Mastodon feed. I cherish reporters that provide links to court rulings.
It’s surprising that Trump would appoint anyone with a name like Fernando Rodriguez. I would have expected his hate, xenophobia, and bigotry to kick in.
Just wait, he’ll incorrectly blame Biden or Barrack insane Obama for appointing the judge, call it DEI, and advocate for impeachment.
I don’t think a lot of the ruling class are actually that racist. Like yeah there are probably a lot of white dudes who see themselves as casually superior but I don’t think most of them HATE yk. I see racism as something they intentionally foster within the working class to make labor unity more difficult and maintain support for their imperial domination. It of course boomerangs and affects them as well but not to the degree it affects us.
It’s kinda like how early populist in Greek city states would win power by advocating for the underclasses but never actually cared about them in the first place. Except now populists win power by doing that and then maintain power by claiming that the reason things aren’t getting better is because of this or that arbitrary internal enemy group instead of themselves. Hatred and cruelty is a means to an end for them.
We are at war. With the Feds. Only a matter of time before significant bloodshed.
