Roberts Court Doubles Down on MAGA Authoritarianism, Hands Trump Two Victories Undermining Immigrant Rights and Due Process
Despite Overwhelming Evidence, Chief Justice Roberts Sides With Trump Administration Instead of the Law
Washington, DC — Today, Chief Justice John Roberts handed multiple victories to Donald Trump and his MAGA immigration agenda by first blocking a federal district court judge’s order to return a legal U.S. resident the administration had illegally removed to El Salvador, and then ruling that Trump has broad authority under the 1798 Wartime Act to remove migrants from the United States. The Department of Justice circumvented several lower court rulings ordering the return of immigrants from an El Salvadoran prison, and instead appealed to Chief Justice Roberts in the hopes he’d implement their agenda. Despite the Department of Justice expressly admitting that one person’s “removal to El Salvador was an administrative error,” the Chief Justice nevertheless sided with Trump and effectively extended migrants’ time in a foreign prison all while placing significant barriers between them and a chance to legally challenge their detention.
“The Supreme Court has once again handed Donald Trump a gold-plated permission slip to engage in authoritarian behavior. Chief Justice Roberts had no qualms ruling today that even legal residents who have been caught up in Trump’s violent immigration policies can wait for justice. While Roberts claimed in his ruling that a constitutional right to due process is alive and well, that doesn’t mean much when residents and nonresidents alike are in danger of being detained and sent to a foreign prison. The laundry list of judges ordering the return of these residents was no match for the Trump administration’s hold over the Supreme Court and their willingness to serve him,” said United for Democracy Senior Advisor Meagan Hatcher-Mays. “While Chief Justice Roberts delays justice, residents like Kilmer Armando Abrego Garcia are still being held under horrific conditions, at severe risk of violence or injury. The Trump administration clearly believes that the Supreme Court works for them — and Chief Justice Roberts proved them right today.”
"Today's decision by five MAGA justices to serve Trump’s agenda — at the expense of Americans’ fundamental rights — is yet another proof point that the Roberts Court is an accomplice to autocracy, not a guardrail against it,” said Court Accountability Executive Director Alex Aronson. “In enabling a Trump regime that has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to flout the law, these justices have made a mockery of due process even as they profess to uphold it. As Justice Soyomayor writes in her dissent, ‘that a majority of [the] court is rewarding the government’ for its threats to due process and abuse of power ‘is indefensible.’ Accepting that our broken institutions won’t save us is imperative. Only then can we take the necessary steps to save ourselves.”
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About United for Democracy
United for Democracy is a diverse and growing coalition of more than 100 grassroots organizations, labor unions, and advocates for reproductive rights, gun violence prevention, the environment, workers rights and more, all representing tens of millions of Americans. The new nationwide campaign launched to educate Americans about the impact today’s Supreme Court is having on their lives, freedoms, and democracy — and call on Congress to rein in its unchecked powers.