Jonathan Turley, a legal expert, provided some very encouraging news for President Donald Trump and his administration earlier this week, saying that the Supreme Court will most likely side with Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 in order to deport over 200 members of Venezuelan members of the deadly gang known as Tren de Agua.
During an interview with Bill Hemmer on America’s Newsroom, Turley stated that the legal conversation happening around the decision to employ the use of the AEA is “controversial” but our court system has everything it needs to resolve the problem.
“There are certainly strong arguments for the administration to make here,” Turley said during the beginning of the segment. “I think that we have to be honest that there are good faith arguments on both sides. This is a controversial law being used in a new way and there are legitimate questions as to the meaning of some of these terms.”
“The legal dust-up began after Trump invoked the centuries-old law in mid-March, allowing for the rapid deportation of criminal non-citizens considered national security threats. Tren de Agua, which has been linked to a wave of criminal activity, became the first target,” Trending Politics News said.
But after a federal judge blocked the deportations and an appeals court upheld the decision, Trump’s legal team signaled it would take the fight to the Supreme Court. Turley says that’s exactly where the battle belongs.
“How much of it is actually reviewable? That’s going to be resolved by the Supreme Court, not by lower court judges,” Turley went on to say. “And people need to trust our system here. We have the greatest legal system on Earth. It will work through these problems, and I think it’s going to work through them.”
He then went on to state that a growing number of nationwide injunctions that have been put forth by district court judges cuts away at executive authority, which is a concern that former Attorney General Bill Barr also shared earlier in the week.
“These district court judges are trying to usurp the responsibility of the president in the national security area,” Barr explained. “They’re trying to reduce all decisions to these trial-like hearings which essentially gives the judge the power to overrule and second-guess the executive.”
There have been significant differences in how lower courts have treated the Trump administration compared to previous presidents. While President Biden faced 14 injunctions during his term, President Obama saw 12, and President Bush had just 6. In contrast, the first Trump administration was hit with 64 injunctions. Remarkably, just 64 days into the current term, the count has already climbed to 15.
“It’s like having a car where every passenger is grabbing the emergency brake. It’s pretty hard to drive that car,” Turley commented during the interview. “And what you have here are judges that are imposing national injunctions, which the Supreme Court—including liberals like Justice Kagan—have objected to. She said, ‘This is madness.’”
“I think the Trump administration is likely to win,” Turley continued. “I also think the Trump administration is likely to prevail in most of these cases. I think that federal judges have overextended themselves. I think they have intruded into areas of Article II or presidential authority.”
While the case is on its way toward the highest court in the land, much of the legal debate surrounding the issue hangs on whether those who are not legal citizens are entitled to full due process rights while being deported.
“The Supreme Court has previously said that there are due process rights that adhere to even non-citizens within the country,” Turley further elaborated. “The question is: how much of a hearing? What do you need to have in order to deport individuals? The administration would like to use this law to sort of circumvent—or short-circuit—at least that process. That’s a novel use of the law.”
We may not have a final ruling on the matter for months, Turley said, but he believes the court will probably side with the president.
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