WASHINGTON — A divided U.S. Supreme Court let President Donald Trump resume using a wartime law to try to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members, giving the administration a boost in a high-profile clash over the limits of presidential power.

Granting an emergency request by Trump on a 5-4 vote, the justices tossed out a lower court order that had paused deportations under the Alien Enemies Act while litigation continues. The majority said detainees must have notice and a chance to make their case to a judge before they are deported.

In an unsigned opinion, the court downplayed the significance of its decision, saying it was requiring only that detainees challenge their deportation through a so-called habeas corpus case filed in the jurisdiction where they are being held. That means the five men pressing the case will have to press their arguments in Texas, not the Washington court where they sued.

Trump hailed the decision in a social media post. “The Supreme Court has upheld the Rule of Law in our Nation by allowing a President, whoever that may be, to be able to secure our Borders, and protect our families and our Country, itself,” he wrote on Truth Social.

The majority didn’t address arguments that scores of people were deported on March 15 to a brutal prison in El Salvador without having a chance to argue that they aren’t gang members. The court instead said the detainees’ “rights against summary removal” aren’t “currently in dispute,” pointing to the Justice Department’s latest position on the issue.

In a recent court filing, the Justice Department said alleged gang members “subject to removal under the Alien Enemies Act get judicial review.”

Sotomayor’s Dissent

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, sharply criticizing the majority’s ruling and the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act.

She said the court’s decision to rule now “is as inexplicable as it is dangerous.” She said that on March 15, “the government was engaged in a covert operation to deport dozens of immigrants without notice or an opportunity for hearings.”

In another dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the president “invoked a centuries-old wartime statute to whisk people away to a notoriously brutal, foreign-run prison. For lovers of liberty, this should be quite concerning.”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the three liberal justices in dissent, though she didn’t endorse all of their reasoning.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh formed the majority.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward representing the Venezuelans had no immediate comment.

Trump has made unprecedented use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a law previously invoked only in the War of 1812, World War I and World War II. The measure lets the president bypass federal immigration law to deport “alien enemies” when the U.S. is involved in a declared war or a foreign nation has started or threatened an “invasion or predatory incursion.”

The high court said it wasn’t deciding whether the administration’s interpretation of the law was correct, though the effect of the decision will be to let the government resume invoking it.

The administration has already used the Alien Enemies Act to ship more than 130 alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang to a prison in El Salvador on March 15 — even though U.S. District Judge James Boasberg orally ordered the two planes carrying the Venezuelans to turn around midflight. The judge is now considering whether the government violated his orders.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said March 18 that the administration had identified another 258 gang members who could be deported. Most weren’t in custody at the time of the statement.

The administration was sued by five Venezuelans who say they aren’t gang members. Their lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward blasted the government for relying on factors like tattoos and Michael Jordan jerseys as conclusive markers of Tren de Aragua membership.

Without court protection, targeted people “will suffer extraordinary and irreparable harms — being sent out of the United States to a notorious Salvadoran prison, where they will remain incommunicado, potentially for the rest of their lives, without having had any opportunity to contest their designation as gang members,” the group told the Supreme Court.

The Venezuelans say Trump is misusing a law that was designed for use during war with a foreign country.

The administration argued that Boasberg overstepped his authority by blocking deportations across the country. The government said people seeking to avoid deportation need to file a habeas corpus petition, which generally involves only a single person. The government also said the five men who sued must press their case in Texas, where they are being held.

Boasberg’s order “is forcing the United States to harbor individuals whom national-security officials have identified as members of a foreign terrorist organization bent upon grievously harming Americans,” the Justice Department argued.

Boasberg’s pause was set to apply until April 12, and he had been considering a request for a longer-term halt. He provisionally granted class action status in the case, so his order applied to everyone covered under Trump’s March 15 proclamation targeting Tren de Aragua members.

A federal appeals court on March 26 kept Boasberg’s order in place on a 2-1 vote.

The Supreme Court case is Trump v. J.G.G., 24A931. The district court case is J.G.G. v. Trump, 25-cv-766, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

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(With assistance from David Voreacos.)

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