In this update, I break down a growing trend across the federal courts: judges around the country are rejecting the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to justify deportations. What started as a strategic legal advantage for the administration—splitting cases across multiple jurisdictions—is quickly unraveling as courts in Colorado, New York, Texas, and beyond issue rulings that call the administration’s legal basis into question.
These decisions aren’t just isolated wins; they’re laying a foundation for a unified judicial stance that could significantly shape the outcome at the Supreme Court. If you’re following the legal response to executive overreach, this moment matters.
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–Ryan
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TRANSCRIPT
Hi — I wanted to put you in the know about an important dynamic unfolding across the country with regard to litigation under the Alien Enemies Act.
To start, when these cases first reached the Supreme Court, the Trump administration scored a partial victory. The Court ruled that the cases couldn’t be brought in Judge Boasberg’s courtroom, where he could issue a nationwide injunction. Instead, they had to be filed individually—piecemeal—in habeas cases across the country, wherever individuals were being held in custody.
That’s a much tougher path for plaintiffs. I discussed this last week on Erin Burnett OutFront on CNN.
At first, the Trump team likely thought scattering these cases across jurisdictions—Northern Texas, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania—would work in their favor. But it’s actually turning against them. Judges in these various jurisdictions are consistently ruling against the administration, often finding that the Alien Enemies Act is being improperly invoked.
Just since last week, more rulings have come down. Judge Sweeney in Colorado issued a preliminary injunction. Judge Hellerstein in the Southern District of New York joined in, ruling that the administration’s actions amount to an abuse of power and violate the law—the circumstances simply don’t justify using the Alien Enemies Act.
This all sets the stage for what happens when the issue ultimately returns to the Supreme Court. If this cascade continues, we’re likely to see broad consistency across the country—a kind of judicial uniformity that will strengthen the plaintiffs’ position when the Supreme Court reviews the case.
We got a preview of this just Wednesday. In a critical case involving individuals already deported to El Salvador, Judge Boasberg questioned Department of Justice attorneys directly. He asked, in light of decisions from Colorado, New York, and the Southern District of Texas, whether the government’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act is invalid from the outset. The DOJ was clearly on the defensive. It’s a problem, in some sense, of their own making.
