The Supreme Court Ignores the Constitution To Avoid a Constitutional Crisis

You know what the Supreme Court absolutely does not want? A full-blown Constitutional crisis sparked by an Administration deciding to defy one of its rulings. Sure, this Administration has tiptoed around the edges — skirting, rationalizing, even flat-out defying federal court decisions — but the media, Republicans, and even Chuck Schumer keep moving the goalposts. “It’s not a real Constitutional crisis,” they say, “unless Donald Trump ignores a Supreme Court ruling.”

Well, here we are.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard a case involving the Alien Enemies Act, a dusty, archaic wartime statute from 1798 used by the Administration to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador without judicial review. The case reached the Court because, just last month, the Administration put 130 Venezuelans on planes and flew them to a prison in El Salvador without judicial review.

Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in D.C. halted those deportations after an ACLU petition. The Administration responded by ignoring the ruling, claiming the flights were already airborne and over international waters. Therefore, the ruling didn’t count, they said, while probably sticking out their tongues and holding Ls to their foreheads.

So what did the Supreme Court do? It dodged the issue entirely. Never mind that 130 people were thrown into a foreign prison without judicial review in direct violation of the Constitution. In a narrow 5-4 decision, the Court ruled that the deportations could continue because the Venezuelans filed suit in the wrong jurisdiction.

Read that again. The Court didn’t say the deportations were legal. It just said the plaintiffs asked the wrong judge.

It’s a cowardly, weak-ass decision, one the minority called out plainly. The majority’s goal here is obvious: avoid a Constitutional crisis by kicking the can down the road. Justice Kavanaugh basically admitted as much, writing, “The disagreement … is not over whether the detainees receive judicial review of their transfers. All nine Members of the Court agree that judicial review is available. The only question is where that judicial review should occur.”

In other words: Yes, they’re entitled to due process. But they filed in the wrong state. So now, they have to go to Texas, where a conservative judge will likely reject their petition until it bounces back to the Supreme Court in a matter of days, weeks, or months. And maybe then, if Trump’s approval ratings have dipped enough, the Court might finally find the courage to do its job.

Meanwhile, those 130 Venezuelans? They’ll sit in a prison in El Salvador. They’ll rot. Some may die. And the Supreme Court majority? They’ll do nothing because they’re feckless, gutless, spineless cowards.