Over the weekend, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the removal of a group of alleged Venezuelan gang members under the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act.
The court released its decision around 1 A.M. on Saturday, after the American Civil Liberties Union had filed an emergency application to halt the deportation of Venezuelan nationals, and represents the latest clash between the Trump administration and the federal courts.
President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in a presidential proclamation issued in mid-March. A wartime authority that empowers the president to “detain or deport the natives and citizens of an enemy nation,” according to the Brennan Center for Justice, it has only been invoked three times since it was passed by Congress – the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.
Though the U.S. isn’t at war, the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang has been declared a foreign terrorist organization and Trump speaks of the gang in his proclamation as “conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States” and being “closely aligned with” the current Venezuelan government. For these reasons, the proclamation reads, any Venezuelan members of the gang 14 years and older “who are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States” are subject to arrest and deportation.
The court did not explain its reasoning behind the weekend order, besides noting that the matter is currently before the Fifth Circuit.
“The Government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court,” the order reads.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from the seven-member majority, though the majority did not wait for the dissenting opinion to be drafted before handing down the order.
Roberts called the decision “legally questionable” in a scathing dissent and questioned whether the court even had jurisdiction.
The 2025 Trump administration has received a number of unfavorable rulings from federal judges to date. The Supreme Court has ruled both for and against the administration on a handful of appealed issues so far.
