It may be the biggest court win for President Donald Trump’s second administration thus far — and he managed it without one of his Supreme Court appointments.
On Monday evening, the high court ruled that Trump’s administration could continue to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of Venezuelan-based transnational gang Tren de Aragua via El Salvador, according to The Washington Post.
In the 5-4 ruling — with Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the court’s liberals in voting against — the Supreme Court didn’t rule on the underlying merits of the use of the Alien Enemies Act.
Instead, perhaps more importantly, they took the case out of the hands of Judge James Boasberg, the Washington, D.C.-based district court judge whose rulings have drawn the ire — and threats of impeachment — from Republicans.
According to Post, the court ruled 5-4 that the plaintiffs filed in an incorrect venue. The American Civil Liberties Union, which had spearheaded the lawsuit, had been criticized for venue-shopping by administration officials and other jurists.
“The detainees are confined in Texas, so venue is improper in the District of Columbia,” the judges wrote.
“As a result, the Government is likely to succeed on the merits of this action.”
The move means the ACLU will have to refile in Texas — and, more importantly, the case is out of the hands of an activist judge who’s threatened to hold Trump administration officials in contempt for not jumping when he says when. (It’s worth noting that the same judge didn’t treat the Obama administration with similar alacrity when he let it slow-walk the release of Hillary Clinton’s emailgate mails and dump most of them after the 2016 election was over, but one digresses.)
The ruling stated that deportees must be allowed due process if the flights were to resume.
Do you agree with the Supreme Court’s decision?
The Trump administration hailed this as one of the biggest victories of the nascent administration.
“It is a bad day to be a terrorist and criminal alien in the United States of America,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in an X post after the ruling.
“Today’s SCOTUS ruling is a victory for commonsense security — an activist judge cannot stop the will of the American people for a safe and secure homeland.
“We will continue to enforce our immigration laws and restore sanity to our immigration system by using all appropriate authorities, including the Alien Enemies Act,” she added.
It is a bad day to be a terrorist and criminal alien in the United States of America. Today’s SCOTUS ruling is a victory for commonsense security— an activist judge cannot stop the will of the American people for a safe and secure homeland. We will continue to enforce our…
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) April 7, 2025
“Tonight’s decision is a landmark victory for the rule of law,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote.
“An activist judge in Washington, DC does not have the jurisdiction to seize control of President Trump’s authority to conduct foreign policy and keep the American people safe.”
BREAKING: The Supreme Court sides with the Trump Administration on the Alien Enemies Act.
Tonight’s decision is a landmark victory for the rule of law. An activist judge in Washington, DC does not have the jurisdiction to seize control of President Trump’s authority to conduct…
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) April 7, 2025
Appearing on Fox News, White House deputy chief of staff for policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller called it a “monumental victory for President Trump” and “a total embarrassment for Judge Boasberg.”
.@StephenM on SCOTUS ruling that President Trump can enforce the Illegal Alien Enemies Act: “This was a huge, I mean monumental victory for President Trump… A total embarrassment for Judge Boasberg… Those monsters can now be hunted down and expelled from this country with… pic.twitter.com/SxhsGtDAU3
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 8, 2025
“The biggest legal win of this administration so far” is how Miller characterized it, saying that “crazy Judge Boasberg” wanted the United States “to turn our planes around” and “empty prisons in foreign countries and bring them back.”
“This is a monumental, colossal victory for the rule of law, for the Constitution, for our founding generation — John Adams, who signed this law into effect in 1798 — and for President Trump in fulfilling his mandate and campaign pledge,” he added.
And, while this isn’t the end of the legal challenges to this, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves. This was a giant victory not only for the application of the Alien Enemies Act but against activist judges who want to act like unelected rulers. Enough is enough.
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