US Supreme Court lets Trump use 1798 law for deportations, with limits

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed Donald Trump to use a 1798 law that historically has been employed only in wartime to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members as part of the Republican president's hardline approach to immigration, but with certain limits.

The court, in an unsigned 5-4 ruling, granted the administration's request to lift Washington-based U.S. Judge James Boasberg's March 15 order that had temporarily blocked the summary deportations under Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act while litigation in the case continues.

Despite siding with the administration, the court's majority placed limits on how deportations may occur, emphasizing that judicial review is required.

Detainees "must receive notice after the date of this order that they are subject to removal under the Act. The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs," the majority wrote.

The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett and the court's three liberal justices dissented.

Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act on March 15 to swiftly deport the alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang, attempting to speed up removals with a law best known for its use to intern Japanese, Italian and German immigrants during World War Two.

In Monday's decision, the court's majority emphasized that it was deciding that any challenges to deportation under Alien Enemies Act must be brought in the federal court district where the migrants are detained, meaning the proper venue was in Texas, not the District of Columbia. The ruling said the court was not resolving the validity of the administration's reliance on that law to carry out the deportations.

The plaintiffs in the case "challenge the government's interpretation of the Act and assert that they do not fall within the category of removable alien enemies. But we do not reach those arguments."

In a legal challenge handled by the American Civil Liberties Union, a group of Venezuelan men in the custody of U.S. immigration authorities on the same day sued on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated, seeking to block the deportations. They argued, among other things, that Trump's order exceeded his powers because the Alien Enemies Act authorizes removals only when war has been declared or the United States has been invaded.

The Alien Enemies Act authorizes the president to deport, detain or place restrictions on individuals whose primary allegiance is to a foreign power and who might pose a national security risk in wartime.

'RULE OF LAW'

Attorney General Pamela Bondi hailed the court's decision as "a landmark victory for the rule of law" and criticized Boasberg as an activist judge who exceeded his powers.

"The Department of Justice will continue fighting in court to make America safe again," Bondi said in a social media post.

Boasberg, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, temporarily blocked the deportations. But Trump's administration allowed two planes already in the air to continue to El Salvador where American officials handed 238 Venezuelan men over to Salvadoran authorities to be placed in the Central American country's "Terrorism Confinement Center."

The judge also has scrutinized whether the Trump administration violated his order by failing to return the deportation flights after his order was issued. Justice Department lawyers said the flights had left U.S. airspace by the time Boasberg issued a written order and thus were not required to return. They dismissed the weight of Boasberg's spoken order during a hearing two hours earlier calling for any planes carrying deportees to be turned around.

Trump's administration has argued that Boasberg's temporary ban encroached on presidential authority to make national security decisions.

On March 18, Trump called for Boasberg's impeachment by Congress - a process that could remove him from the bench - drawing a rebuke from the U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts. Trump on social media called Boasberg, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2011 in a bipartisan 96-0 vote, a "Radical Left Lunatic" and a "troublemaker and agitator."

The D.C. Circuit upheld Boasberg's order after holding a contentious hearing that involved heated language. Judge Patricia Millett told Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign that "Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act than has happened here." Ensign responded, "We certainly dispute the Nazi analogy."

Family members of many of the deported Venezuelan migrants deny the alleged gang ties. Lawyers for one of the deportees, a Venezuelan professional soccer player and youth coach, said U.S. officials had wrongly labeled him a gang member based on a tattoo of a crown meant to honor his favorite team, Real Madrid.

(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)