[tomder55]

A black letter law is what is considered well established .This includes legal rules and procedures dated back to 'Marbury v Madison' ;the regrettable decision when SCOTUS first violated the concept of 'equal branches of government' .

Friday in the dead of night on a holiday weekend ,SCOTUS took it's imperial judiciary to unprecedented levels of abuse.

Up until then the black letter procedure was that SCOTUS made decisions after lower courts made decisions . Instead they issued an unsigned ruling in favor of the plaintiff ;the AARP ,against the administration ,without giving the administration the right to defend their case.

There is only dissent in the written case because SCOTUS ;at 1AM on Saturday morning ;ruled before heading home for Easter .

Shamefully there were only 2 associate justices to object ;Sam Alito and Clarance Thomas.

In the ruling the court stopped deportations under the Alien Enemies Act ; a law passed by Congress in 1798 ;and has sat as established law since. Basically it allows the President to deport aliens (legal and illegal) in times of war ;attempted invasion ;and when there is a “predatory incursion” against U.S. territory.

An Act Respecting Alien Enemies

It is self evident that the law applies when there is an attack by other nations. But there have been invasions of the US by non-state actors in the past . The law applies in those cases too. Any change in the law has to be done by Congress; not judicial fiat.

Alito's dissent is straight forward .
SCOTUS did not have jurisdiction because the decision was made before the complaint went through the proper appeals process.

AARP appealed directly to SCOTUS rather than to the lower courts .

They made the call before the Court of Appeals that was considering the case in violation of SCOTUS rules of procedure. (s Rule 23.3, “[e]xcept in the most extraordinary circumstances, an application for a stay will not be entertained unless the relief requested was first sought in the appropriate court or courts below or from a judge or judges thereof.”)

SCOTUS considered the appeal without any input from the government
that the appeal gave no proof of the need for immediate relief
that the government had no plans for immediate deportations

In sum, literally in the middle of the night, the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation for its order. I refused to join the Court’s order because we had no good reason to think that, under the circumstances, issuing an order at midnight was necessary or appropriate.
Both the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law. The Executive must proceed under the terms of our order in Trump v. J. G. G., 604 U. S. ___ (2025) (per curiam), and this Court should follow established procedures.

24A1007 A.A.R.P. v. Trump (04/19/2025)

This goes way beyond judicial review. SCOTUS had nothing to review . The unelected ,appointed for life branch ,has given itself even more power than it seized in Marbury v Madison.

This is the 2nd time SCOTUS has violated their procedures since Trump's 2nd term began.

Before this ruling they did an 'advisory opinion ' to a lower court in the USAID case . They told the lower court what to rule without actually ruling the case .
Search - Supreme Court of the United States

This also was an unsigned ruling .

All that did was cost the American taxpayers $2 billion .

As Alito said in dissent

Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars? The answer to that question should be an emphatic “No,” but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned.

24A831 Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (03/05/2025)

SCOTUS has abandoned any pretense of procedural regularity . They now have unconstitutional dictatorial oversight of the government .

[jlisenbe]

Very disappointed in the Trump appointees. They seem to be about as stupid as the others. It has been observed by others that there seems to be a powerful influence exercised by the Washington political environment upon new SCOTUS justices. They generally end up swinging to the left. Sure seems to be true of Barrett, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch. Thomas thankfully managed to weather that storm well.