The divided ruling allows deportations under 1798 law as dissenters warn of human rights abuses in El Salvador

The U.S. Supreme Court has narrowly sided with Donald Trump’s administration in a high-stakes legal battle over the Alien Enemies Act, granting emergency relief in a 5-4 decision that lifts restraining orders blocking the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador.

The ruling, issued late Monday, saw the court’s Republican-appointed majority vacate a federal judge’s temporary orders halting deportations under the rarely used 1798 statute. Justice Amy Coney Barrett broke with fellow conservatives, aligning with the court’s three Democratic appointees in a scathing dissent.

The court’s unsigned opinion declared that detainees must file legal challenges where they are physically held—in Texas—not in Washington, D.C., where the original litigation was filed. The justices did not weigh in on whether the Trump administration’s interpretation of the Alien Enemies Act was lawful but insisted deportees must be notified and given time to seek legal relief.

“Venue is improper in the District of Columbia,” the majority wrote, focusing on procedural grounds rather than the substance of the administration’s actions.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, and partly by Barrett, warned of “life or death consequences” for deportees. She condemned the majority’s grant of “extraordinary relief” while the government stands accused of undermining judicial orders. Sotomayor cited the brutal conditions inside El Salvador’s CECOT prison—where deportees could face torture and indefinite isolation.

However, the dissents told a darker story.

“The government’s conduct throughout this litigation subverts the judicial process,” Sotomayor wrote, calling the court’s ruling “suspect.”

Justice Jackson, writing separately, denounced the use of a “centuries-old wartime statute to whisk people away” without due process. “For lovers of liberty, this should be quite concerning,” she said.

The Alien Enemies Act, dating back to the John Adams administration, has only been used three times in U.S. history—all during declared wars. Trump’s invocation of the statute in peacetime to deport non-citizens has ignited fierce legal challenges, especially given that deportees are being sent to one of the world’s most notorious prisons.

On 15 March, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued restraining orders halting deportations while he reviewed whether Trump officials had violated court mandates. Plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU’s Lee Gelernt, accused the administration of flouting Boasberg’s orders by failing to repatriate individuals wrongly deported.

Gelernt called the Supreme Court’s decision a mixed result. “The critical point is the court affirmed detainees’ right to due process,” he said, though he emphasised the urgent threat posed by rushed deportations without proper review.

The Trump administration had framed the case as a matter of executive authority. “The Constitution supplies a clear answer: the President. The republic cannot afford a different choice,” the government argued in its application to Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees emergency matters from the D.C. Circuit.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing a concurring opinion, downplayed the dispute as a venue question. “All nine members of the court agree that judicial review is available,” he wrote. “The only question is where.”

Still, the dissents painted a graver picture. Sotomayor warned that without adequate legal access, individuals could vanish into CECOT’s incommunicado cells, especially if they’re wrongly identified as gang members. She cited a separate case where an individual was mistakenly deported, and the government admitted it had made an “administrative error.”

Boasberg, an Obama appointee, is expected to rule soon on whether Trump officials violated his orders. In a recent hearing, the judge expressed frustration at the government’s evasiveness on whether it tried to retrieve individuals already sent to El Salvador.

Legal observers say the ruling sets a dangerous precedent for future use of executive power in national security contexts, especially amid ongoing scandals like “Signalgate,” which has already undermined confidence in the administration’s handling of classified operations.

For now, the court’s decision clears the way for continued deportations, while opponents brace for a longer legal fight over the Alien Enemies Act’s constitutionality—and the fate of those already swept up under its broad reach.