The decision overturned a lower court’s restraining order that stopped deportations, though the court did impose some restrictions.

In a 5-4 decision siding with President Donald Trump, the United States Supreme Court ended a temporary restraining order implemented by a lower court judge in the Trump administration’s efforts to use the Alien Enemies Act in the deportation of thousands of illegal immigrants. The Trump administration has used the Alien Enemies Act as justification to deport members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which is also labeled a terrorist organization by the Department of State.

While the restraining order was lifted and deportations may resume, the court did not rule specifically on whether Trump can use the Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal immigrants. Additionally, the court will require officials to allow “reasonable time” for those subject to deportation to challenge the deportation order. With U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s order lifted, deportations can resume, though illegal immigrants’ legal challenges to their deportation order must occur in Texas since that is where they are being held before deportation.

Trump reacted to the ruling positively, taking to Truth Social and calling the Court’s order a “great day for justice in America” as the “Supreme Court has upheld the Rule of Law in our Nation” by allowing a president “to be able to secure our Borders.” While the Trump administration can take a victory lap, others like the American Civil Liberties Union are also claiming a partial victory. In statement after the ruling, the ACLU said, “the critical point” of the ruling was “the Supreme Court said individuals must be given due process to challenge their removal.” The ACLU represented the plaintiffs at the Supreme Court.

While the majority ruling was “unsigned”, the Court’s three liberal justices, joined partially by Trump-appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett, dissented. Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the Trump administration’s deportation actions “an extraordinary threat to the rule of law.” Barrett wrote in partial agreement with the other justices’ dissent saying the majority ruling “rewards the government for its behavior”, calling it “indefensible.” In a separate dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote the President “invoked a centuries-old wartime statute to whisk people away to a notoriously brutal, foreign-run prison.”

Criticism of Trump’s deportation orders began immediately after they began, with many casting doubt on the law’s applicability simply because it was signed into law in 1791. However, one blogger pointed out those using this criticism “seem[ed] to forget that our Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791.

Constitutional attorney Katie Cherkasky told Fox News the ruling gives “broad authority to declare whether somebody should be in this country under the Alien Enemies Act.

Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X in response to the SCOTUS ruling, calling it a “landmark victory for the rule of law” and saying, “an activist judge…does not have the jurisdiction to seize control of President Trump’s authority.”