The US Supreme Court is where the country’s constitution will be tested.
Its nine judges have been presented with a number of cases that challenge actions taken by the Trump administration. Their rulings will measure the power of this president.
Donald Trump argues he was elected to enact policies as he sees fit. Opponents say he’s driving a coach and horses through a constitution that has, as its cornerstone, the executive (presidency), the legislature (Congress) and the judiciary (courts) as coequal and separate branches of government – a framework set up to ensure checks and balances against an abuse of authority.
The use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was one such test. It’s the wartime law the administration used to fly alleged gang members to a prison in El Salvador.
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The highest court in the land has ruled the Trump administration can keep loading up planes with people they think are undesirables from another country.
Mr Trump duly hailed the judgment a victory, posting on Truth Social that it was a “great day for justice in America”.
But there’s more. While the court has given Mr Trump the ruling he sought in this case, it has emphasised the necessity for proper legal process.
The Justices ruled that individuals must be given time to challenge their detention and make the government prove it’s legally justified.
Some of the men sent over in those planes to Venezuela say they were denied due process. In this ruling, the justices didn’t go into whether the Trump administration was wrong to deport some of these men – many of them claim they have no gang affiliations.
In favouring the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, the Supreme Court added guardrails. Deportees do have the right to go to court and challenge their detention. Also, they have to be given reasonable advance notice so they can attend court and not simply be whisked away in the middle of the night.
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Dissenting voices among judges
Not everyone on the Supreme Court bench agreed with the decision to lean towards the Trump administration.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of its more liberal judges, wrote in her dissent: “The government’s conduct in this litigation poses an extraordinary threat to the rule of law… We, as a Nation and a court of law, should be better than this.”
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Case represents legal checks and balances on Trump’s power
It is a case among several which, collectively, represent legal checks and balances on the power of Mr Trump. He’s been told he can use an archaic law to deport people, but they have the right to a fair hearing. There are more than 200 languishing in an El Salvadorian prison who had no hearing at all.
Reacting to the court’s ruling, Lee Gelernt, of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said: “The critical point is that the court rejected the government’s remarkable position that it does not even have to give individuals meaningful advance notice to challenge their removal under the Alien Enemies Act. That is a big victory.”
Both sides claimed the result in America’s highest court, even if both know the game’s far from over.
