The US Supreme Court on Monday quashed a lower court order that had blocked the deportation of undocumented Venezuelan migrants by the Trump administration under a wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
In the 5-4 ruling, chief justice John Roberts and four other conservative justices voted to lift the district court’s temporary block, while the three liberal justices and justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was appointed by Trump, dissented.
President Trump used the Alien Enemies Act to authorise deportations through a proclamation aimed at the Tren de Aragua gang. In response, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of five Venezuelan nationals held in Texas, leading district judge Boasberg to temporarily block the deportations.
Who is Amy Coney Barrett?
- Amy Coney Barrett was a law professor at Notre Dame University for nearly two decades before joining the judiciary. She earned her undergraduate degree from Rhodes College and later graduated from Notre Dame Law School.
- The 48-year-old superme court judge served as an appellate court judge before being nominated to the highest court by president Trump in 2020.
- Barrett is one of the four women currently serving as associate justices on the US supreme court.
- She has occasionally broken ranks with the court’s conservative bloc on key issues, drawing criticism from some right-wing circles.
- She voted against Trump’s request to block sentencing in his New York hush money case, reinstated a lower court’s order requiring the Trump administration to release nearly $2 billion in frozen foreign aid, and was also involved in last year’s supreme court ruling that limited the use of an obstruction charge against January 6 Capitol rioters.
- Trump publicly defended Barrett after a ruling in which she sided against him, allowing nearly $2 billion in frozen foreign aid to be distributed under existing contracts. Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump played down the criticism, saying, “She’s a very good woman. She’s very smart. I don’t know about people attacking her. I really don’t know.”