In a rare and scathing rebuke from the bench, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito—joined by Justice Clarence Thomas—took aim at the Court’s liberal majority for what he called a reckless, legally dubious midnight ruling that blocked President Trump’s lawful use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport dangerous foreign nationals tied to Venezuela’s violent Tren de Aragua gang.
At issue is the Supreme Court’s emergency order—issued under the cover of darkness without full briefing, lower court rulings, or even a response from the government—that halted the deportation of illegal immigrants currently held at the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Texas. These individuals, according to DHS and supporting court documents, are suspected of ties to the criminal syndicate wreaking havoc in both South and North America.
Justice Alito didn’t hold back.
“Literally in the middle of the night,” Alito wrote, “the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party… and without providing any explanation for its order.”
Justice Alito’s dissent is 🔥 pic.twitter.com/1MqHYhPea9
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) April 20, 2025
Alito slammed the Court’s decision as a violation of long-standing judicial norms, arguing that the case hadn’t even reached the proper stage for Supreme Court intervention. The ACLU filed an emergency application based not on a denied injunction, but on a “constructive denial”—essentially claiming the lower court didn’t move fast enough for their liking. That, according to Alito, is not how the judiciary is supposed to work.
“The Court of Appeals had jurisdiction only if the supposed order that the applicants appealed amounted to the denial of a preliminary injunction,” Alito explained. “But here, the ‘order’… was what they viewed as the District Court’s ‘constructive’ denial… That’s not an appealable decision.”
Let’s be clear: the Alien Enemies Act—a law that dates back to 1798—grants the President the authority to deport foreign nationals from hostile nations during wartime or invasion. President Trump invoked it in light of the infiltration of Venezuelan-linked gang activity across the southern border. This is not theoretical. It’s real. It’s dangerous. And it’s precisely why the law exists.
But once again, left-wing activist groups like the ACLU ran to the judiciary, bypassed normal procedures, and got the Supreme Court’s liberal bloc to halt enforcement of a constitutional, legally sound policy.
Alito and Thomas stood alone in defense of process, law, and national security. Unfortunately, for now, the Court’s majority caved to legal activism—at the expense of American safety.
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