ACLU: Habeas Corpus Violated
Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s lead attorney, said the Supreme Court’s intervention may have saved dozens from being “whisked away” without due process. “These men were in imminent danger of spending their lives in a horrific foreign prison without ever having had a chance to go to court,” he stated.
Gelernt emphasized the detainees had been denied sufficient notice to challenge their deportations—despite the Supreme Court’s earlier ruling that such notice must be provided “within a reasonable time.”
The administration’s top litigator, Solicitor General D. John Sauer, asked the justices to either allow lower courts to weigh in or, at minimum, clarify that other deportation authorities remain intact. He argued that the government gave the detainees “adequate time,” though specifics were conspicuously absent.
A Political Powder Keg
President Trump, who returned to office on January 20 with a renewed vow to crush illegal immigration, shrugged off questions about the case. “If they’re bad people, I would certainly authorize it. That’s why I was elected. A judge wasn’t,” he said Friday.
Trump’s use of executive power—especially in the face of judicial opposition—has reignited concerns about constitutional limits. Tensions flared again when an appeals court spared the administration from contempt proceedings threatened by District Judge James Boasberg, whom Trump previously called to impeach.
The showdown between the White House and the judiciary now pivots on whether the Supreme Court’s pause becomes permanent—or merely a fleeting roadblock in Trump’s unrelenting immigration agenda.
