A federal appeals court on Thursday delivered a huge win for President Trump in a key Alien Enemies Act lawsuit.
The en banc panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (a decision from the court’s entire slate of judges) ruled that a key lawsuit is moot because the three men who brought the case have been deported.
“The Supreme Court remanded this case to us when the three named petitioners were still in the country. But we have since learned that the government has removed them. Given this change, we conclude that the appeal is moot,” the judges wrote.
“Given the lack of any named petitioners to whom we could grant relief in this appeal, and given that this case has never and does not now feature any class, we conclude that the appeal is moot. We therefore DISMISS the appeal for lack of jurisdiction,” the judges wrote.
Judge James Ho, a Trump appointee, wrote a blistering concurring opinion backing President Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act.
President Trump last year invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport dangerous Venezuelan gang members.
Although several district court judges have ruled against President Trump’s decision to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan aliens, a federal judge in Pennsylvania became the first to say Trump can invoke the AEA to deport Tren de Aragua gang members.
Last year, the US Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Trump Administration from deporting dangerous Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act.
In an unsigned order, the high court said the Trump DOJ did not give the Venezuelans enough time to challenge their removals.
“Under these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster,” the unsigned decision read.
The Supreme Court punted the case back down to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Last year, a three-judge panel on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals voted down Trump’s invocation of the AEA.
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