Lawlessness is blind
By 
Sam Alito has finally filed his dissent in Trump v. The Foundations of Anglo-American Law, and it proceeds as you’d expect:
Alito has finally published his dissent from the Supreme Court’s emergency order last night. It’s joined by Thomas, and accuses the majority of violating multiple procedural rules in its race to halt unlawful deportations. Characteristically whiny and aggrieved. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p…
[image or embed]— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) April 19, 2025 at 8:36 PM
I do think Alito misstates the factual record when he claims the Trump administration pinky-promised not to fly migrants to El Salvador on Friday or Saturday. The deeper problem, of course, is that the administration’s representations about this cannot be trusted at all. bsky.app/profile/peri…
[image or embed]— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) April 19, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Also I’m sorry but I can’t take Alito seriously when he whines about the proper procedure for appealing a temporary restraining order or its denial. The man has spent three months rewriting the rules so that every order against the Trump administration is appealable! There are no rules anymore!— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) April 19, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Alito’s position is that the Trump administration is entitled to a permanent presumption of good faith irrespective of how it acts, an assumption that would allow it to easily evade the most critical legal constraints in American constitutionalism, which is why even a Court presumptively deferential toward Republican administrations felt compelled to act. And this isn’t hypothetical:
Video from Friday night shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement buses full of Venezuelan migrants headed toward an airport in North Texas before abruptly turning around before the Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration must, for now, refrain from deporting Venezuelan men based in the state under the Alien Enemies Act.
At least 28 detainees — most, if not all, understood to be Venezuelan nationals — were placed on buses Friday evening at ICE’s Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas, and then driven toward Abilene Airport about 30 miles away.
The motorcade — including at least 18 squad cars from various law enforcement agencies with flashing lights along the north Texas highways — left the ICE facility, with some men on board being told they were being deported to El Salvador and some told they were headed to Venezuela, according to the wife of one of the detainees and two lawyers representing other detainees at the facility. Prior to their departure, it was not clear what their destinations would be.
The video, obtained exclusively by NBC News, shows the ICE motorcade pass the airport’s exit and then turn around, looping back to return to the Bluebonnet detention facility.
The Trump administration is seeking to deport the men, who it says are members of the Tren de Aragua gang. It remains unclear whether the government has the authority to apply the Alien Enemies Act to gang members outside of a war situation, and whether adjudications about gang membership are accurate.
These people would all be in a Salvadoran torture prison without due process and in defiance of federal judicial orders if the Court hadn’t intervened, and Alito and Thomas know it as well anyone. They just affirmatively support it.