Supreme Court slaps back activist judge who defied its order
The US Supreme Court hit back at a rogue federal judge who defied its pro-Trump ruling last month.
On June 23rd, the high court issued a 6-3 decision granting the Trump administration the ability to deport criminal illegal aliens to countries other than their own. The decision tore down an injunction by US District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts, who had blocked the Trump administration from deporting illegals to third countries without first allowing them to raise claims under the Convention Against Torture (CAT).
Even after the Supreme Court’s ruling, however, Judge Murphy refused to back down and insisted his injunction remained in effect. The Trump administration therefore filed a Motion for Clarification with the Supreme Court, asking it to “make clear beyond any doubt that the government can immediately proceed with the third-country removals of the criminal aliens.” The government called Judge Murphy’s decision “a lawless act of defiance that, once again, disrupts sensitive diplomatic relations and slams the brakes on the executive’s lawful efforts to effectuate third-country removals.”
Even a dissenting justice agrees
On Thursday, the Supreme Court granted the government’s motion, clarifying that Judge Murphy had indeed defied the nation’s highest court.
“[Judge Murphy’s] order cannot now be used to enforce an injunction that our stay rendered unenforceable,” the order read. Even liberal Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who dissented in the Supreme Court’s original decision, concurred.
“I voted to deny the Government’s previous stay application in this case, and I continue to believe that this Court should not have stayed the District Court’s April 18 order enjoining the Government from deporting non-citizens to third countries without notice or a meaningful opportunity to be heard,” Justice Kagan wrote.
“But a majority of this Court saw things differently, and I do not see how a district court can compel compliance with an order that this Court has stayed,” she said.
Justices Sotomayor and Jackson issued a blistering dissent.
“Today’s order clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial,” Sotomayor wrote.
The case centered on eight criminal illegal aliens who the Trump administration attempted to deport to South Sudan. After Judge Murphy blocked the move, the men were held at a US naval base in Djibouti, another country in East Africa, while the administration fought the decision in court.
