One point that's going to get lost in the discussion of [#SCOTUS's](
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 ) intervention in the Alien Enemy Act case: This is the *value* of nationwide injunctions. Without them, you have to go district by district, and the government can try to play games by moving people to districts without relief (yet).
I don't really care what the "political consequences" are of fighting for the proposition that *everyone* is entitled to due process before they are removed from the United States and sent to a Salvadoran prison. It's not really a principle if you only adhere to it when it's politically expedient.
Either the U.S. government *is* able to exert monetary and diplomatic pressure on El Salvador sufficient to produce Abrego Garcia’s release, or it isn’t. The latter would be either a bald-faced lie or a pretty stunning concession of our national impotence. The Vice President should pick one. https://amanita.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:nwnlnixtjh3qhkwpz2uy5uwv&cid=bafkreibmpr2yjriwntqgisffzzepnmxej3blgrb43ygueimi564ascf63q
If the U.S. government is going to take the position that, once removed from the United States, folks can’t be brought back, then it sure seems to me that federal courts should be reflexively and categorically barring *all* removals until they’re 100 percent certain that the removals are lawful.
Before folks overreact to headlines about the judge’s ruling in the Khalil case, please note that (1) it was an immigration judge (IJ), not a federal district court; and (2) the IJ had no power to consider Khalil’s constitutional objections. This particular decision was a fait accompli.
The problem with this ruling is the presumption of regularity. In any other administration, a remand with instructions to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return would lead to honest representations about what is—and isn’t—possible. In this administration, there’s no reason to expect straight answers. RE:
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Steve Vladeck (@stevevladeck.bsky.social)
#BREAKING: Supreme Court holds that Trump administration must attempt to “facilitate” the return of Wilmer Armando Abrego García from El Salva...
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#BREAKING: Supreme Court holds that Trump administration must attempt to “facilitate” the return of Wilmer Armando Abrego García from El Salvador, but remands to the district court to sort out exactly what the administration can and must do going forward: [s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25...](📄.pdf ) [s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2589...](📄.pdf )
The question isn’t whether a federal court can order the Salvadoran government to release Garcia; it can’t. It’s whether the U.S. government has the ability to secure Garcia’s release. If so, then it can be ordered to do so, because then Garcia is in the “constructive” custody of the United States. RE:
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Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social)
It sure looks like they’re going all in on the “the executive branch can ignore court orders if it thinks the court lacks jurisdiction” thing
The last day on which a majority of the Supreme Court’s justices had been appointed by Democratic presidents was May 14, 1969. One of the things we do in the legal academy is support our claims with facts. https://amanita.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:nwnlnixtjh3qhkwpz2uy5uwv&cid=bafkreig7dffgfyqqbawuqed2krjef2swyh4hsf3eymi7p2psrxbjk5nmnq
"If this many different judges in this many different courts appointed by this many different presidents are blocking this many policies promulgated by the same president, we ought to be able to agree that the problem is the policies—not the judges." [www.stevevladeck.com/p/136-settin...](
136. Setting the Record Straight on the Anti-Trump Injunctions
President Trump and his supporters are mounting increasingly noisy attacks on lower-court judges. But their claims combine shameless hypocrisy with...
 ) [136. Setting the Record Straig...](
136. Setting the Record Straight on the Anti-Trump Injunctions
President Trump and his supporters are mounting increasingly noisy attacks on lower-court judges. But their claims combine shameless hypocrisy with...
 )