Supreme Court drops major ruling - Brian Tyler Cohen

[TexasTowelie]

Legal Breakdown episode 504: ‪@GlennKirschner2‬ discusses the Supreme Court ruling on the deportation case.

Summary: A unanimous decision that all people must receive their due process rights prior to being deported.

Transcript:

you're watching the legal breakdown
Glenn you and I have been speaking a lot
about Judge Booseberg He's the judge
presiding over this case regarding
whether or not Trump has the ability to
deport migrants without any due process
Now this case has gone all the way up to
the US Supreme Court where they finally
weighed in So can you explain what just
happened at that court yeah Brian this
is actually a bad development for the
Trump administration And here's why All
nine Supreme Court justices just told
the Trump administration in no uncertain
terms that if you are intending to
deport people including under the Alien
Enemies Act which you may or may not be
able to do The Supreme Court didn't take
that up If you're going to keep trying
to deport people you've got to give them
their constitutional rights of notice
and opportunity to be heard In other
words before you stuff them on a plane
and send them to be imprisoned in El
Salvador or anyone else you have to give
them advanced notice of what you're
going to try to do to them They have to
have an opportunity to go to court be
heard by a judge make their case as to
why they should not be deported Because
here is what Judge Boseberg's case
involves And this is the case that was
just decided by the Supreme Court Judge
Boseberg issued a temporary restraining
order when he got wind because suit was
filed in DC that Trump was deporting
people without honoring their due
process rights Judge Boseberg
immediately put a temporary restraining
order in place and said "You must stop
right now and you must not have any
other planes take off full of uh
Venezuelan immigrants heading to El
Salvador and if planes are in the air
they must turn around." Well today Brian
the Supreme Court said "Well we are
going to take up the legality the
propriety of that temporary restraining
order." And here's what they said And
you know this is really kind of an ugly
um development The five justice majority
said "We're just going to decide this on
procedural issues and we're not going to
say one word about the fact that the
Trump administration
unconstitutionally deported hundreds of
Venezuelan migrants." So they decided
that issue and it looks like this case
will now have to shift over from federal
court in DC move out to Texas The nature
of the proceeding will change It'll go
from a lawsuit that was brought as a
class action to try to put a stop to all
of these illegal deportations to a
casebycase treatment of the detention of
each Venezuelan immigrant who's still
being held in Texas pending deportation
But the good news is the four justice
minority would not let that silence from
the five justice majority go And they
laid out in their descent as authored by
Justice Sodtoayor But it was joined by
Justice Kagan by Justice Katanji Brown
Jackson and it was even joined in part
by Justice Amy Coney Barrett And what
that descent did Brian is it laid out
the blatant and dangerous violation of
the Constitution the due process rights
of these Venezuelan migrants that the
Trump
administration perpetrated And then they
went on to disagree with you know the
procedural treatment that the majority
of justices gave this matter But the
bottom line is all nine justices and
believe it or not there was a separate
very short concurring opinion authored
by of all people Justice Kavanaaugh
saying let me emphasize all nine
justices are on the same page that
anybody who the Trump administration
intends to deport must must get their
constitutional due process rights of
notice and opportunity to be heard But
conspicuously absent from the five
justice majority opinion was any
criticism or even acknowledgment that
the Trump administration has really
grossly violated the constitutional
rights of hundreds of Venezuelan
migrants already Now on its face this
might look like a win for the Trump
administration because they didn't rule
in accordance with what Judge Boseberg
said but they basically just shut the
case down on procedural grounds They
said that we would rule on this on the
merits but it's not in the right court
It needs to be in Texas and it can't be
class action suit It has to be on an
individualized basis Is that generally
correct Brian that's such a great point
because of course the Trump
administration is pounding its chest and
crowing about how it's won a a
resounding victory But here's the thing
right they were just called on the
carpet for violating the constitution
for hundreds of Venezuelan migrants
previously by not giving them notice and
opportunity to be heard And now all nine
justices have banded together and said
they haven't all said that was wrong But
moving forward they all said everybody
everybody you try to deport regardless
of how you try under what legal
provision you have to honor their due
process rights I would actually call
that a victory for the Constitution and
for the due process rights of anybody
that Trump tries to deport moving
forward Glenn quick question on why they
did opt to bring this case in Washington
DC as opposed to Texas where they were
actually picked up Is it because it was
against the federal government and so
knowing that the federal government the
seat of the government is in Washington
DC they thought that this would be an
appropriate venue for this case yeah
it's an advanced sort of procedural
question and it's a great one Here is
why these Venezuelans through their
lawyers said "We're not contesting our
detention You're welcome to detain us as
long as we get our notice and
opportunity to be heard." So attacking
the legality of one's detention is why
you bring a petition for a writ of
habius corpus but they weren't attacking
their detention which is why I think the
four justice minority is right and the
five justice majority is wrong but then
secondarily they said no we're going to
bring a class action because we believe
that the Trump proclamation which was
signed in Washington DC as you point out
invoking the Alien Enemies Act of I
think it was uh it's
1798 You're completely misusing it
You're using it in an unlawful and
unconstitutional way And that's why we
brought So the crime so to speak
actually took place in DC because the
crime didn't have to do with these
migrants detention The crime has to do
with Trump wrongly invoking a federal
statute from within the White House in
Washington DC Exactly right And
importantly all of the justices in this
new opinion said "Listen this is just
about the temporary restraining order
and about what kind of a suit should be
brought." This does not even touch on
whether Donald Trump lawfully or
unlawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act
And in fact Justice Sotomayor goes to
great lengths to say "Oh by the way that
will be litigated in the future." And
let me explain why the Trump
administration is likely to lose that
and she ticks through the reasons So
this really is a procedural narrow and
even something of a temporary ruling But
let me add this Brian People may
remember that when Judge Boseberg
ordered there would be no more
deportations no planes should take off
and those that were in the air should
turn around and the Trump administration
violated those court orders There is a
potential contempt proceeding that is
ongoing in the Boseberg case and this
ruling by the Supreme Court will
absolutely not impact or mood out fancy
way to say cancel out those contempt
hearings Why because the Supreme Court
has ruled many times over that that the
government and indeed any party any
litigant any person must obey court
orders even if those court orders are
later successfully challenged and found
to be invalid So I predict that Judge
Boseberg contempt proceedings against
the Trump administration will continue
notwithstanding this reversal of the
restraining order by the Supreme Court
Finally let's finish off with this We
know that this specific case was shot
down by the Supreme Court because they
didn't have standing to bring it in the
jurisdiction that they brought it in Is
there another case that already
satisfies these requirements that's
currently ongoing or do we have to wait
for one of these wrongly deported
migrants to rebring the case only in
Texas where they actually have proper
jurisdiction and just to play the whole
process out yes So well our viewers may
remember there is another deportation
case a gentleman named Garcia who was
wrongfully even the Trump administration
said we were wrong We screwed up They
called They called it an administrative
error Administrative error Boy I'm sure
that's comforting to Mr Garcia who's
being held in that dangerous prison in
El Salvador when he had a court order
from a judge saying the federal
government may not deport him to El
Salvador So there are other cases
kicking around in the system involving
deportations the legality or illegality
of those deportations But I have a
feeling you're going to see additional
cases now brought as a result of this
new Supreme Court ruling People will
have to start filing petitions for a rid
of habius corpus attacking the legality
of their detention Those will be kicking
around in court probably for for a long
time to come Glenn where do we stand as
of right now in terms of the Trump
administration's ability to continue
deporting these people without due
process like I know that you just
mentioned that all of these Supreme
Court justices were adamant in their
demand that this administration actually
give these people due process Brian I'm
glad you asked me that question because
Justice Sotomayor in her um descent
takes this exact point on And here is
what she tells the Trump administration
indeed it's a pointed warning from the
minority of the justices who signed on
to this disscent She said to the extent
the government the Trump administration
removes even one individual without
affording him notice and a meaningful
opportunity to file and pursue habius
relief It the government does so in
direct contravention of an edict by the
United States Supreme Court Period
Exclamation point So I added the
exclamation point Um but look she puts
the Trump administration on notice Hear
me now All nine justices said "Don't do
it again moving forward You did it for
two or 300 immigrants already Don't do
it again or you're directly violating an
edict of the Supreme Court." Brian when
all nine justices come together to make
that point that is something that we
don't see every day coming out of the
Supreme Court All right Well we will of
course continue to stay on top of this
issue For anybody watching it if you
want to continue to follow along and
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please make sure to subscribe The links
to both of our channels are right here
on the screen I'm Brian Tyler Cohen And
I'm Glenn Kersner You're watching the
Legal Breakdown