The Supreme Court Rewards Trump’s Defiance

“Regardless of whether the detainees formally request release from confinement, because their claims for relief ‘necessarily imply the invalidity’ of their confinement and removal under the AEA, their claims fall within the ‘core’ of the writ of habeas corpus and thus must be brought in habeas,” the justices in the majority wrote, quoting from precedent. While the order is unsigned, the lineup of the dissenting justices means that the majority consists of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh.

At the same time, the court handed the Trump administration what could be a setback by holding that the government must provide targeted detainees with certain due-process protections before removing them because Trump’s order and the text of the AEA limit its applicability to certain groups—Venezuelan nationals who are (1) members of TdA, (2) not green card holders or U.S. citizens, and (3) not younger than 14 years old. (The age requirement is a textual one from the AEA itself.)

“More specifically, in this context, AEA detainees must receive notice after the date of this order that they are subject to removal under the Act,” the court explained. “The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs.”