Vanessa Cárdenas and David Leopold React to SCOTUS Ruling

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Washington, DC — The following are statements from America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas and America’s Voice legal advisor David Leopold reacting to the details and implications of this evening’s 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling lifting Judge Boasberg’s temporary restraining order against the Trump administration’s use of the “Alien Enemies Act.”

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“This administration’s attacks on immigrants are the tip of the spear when it comes to attacks on all of our freedoms. While tonight’s Supreme Court ruling allows for basic due process, it does not hold President Trump to account for his indiscriminate attacks on immigrants or his invocation of an 18th century war time act that has previously led to internment camps and the trampling on the rights of U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike.

Instead of standing up for a full-throated defense of democracy and the rule of law, tonight’s ruling hands Trump a chisel to keep chipping away and eroding core tenets of our democracy.”

According to David Leopold, leading immigration attorney and America’s Voice legal advisor:

“While it’s good the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the people subject to the ‘Alien Enemies Act’ are entitled to habeas relief, it’s nevertheless disappointing that a majority of the Court did not hold the administration accountable for its outrageous behavior, including surreptitiously invoking the ‘Alien Enemies Act’ without notice and in a manner that was clearly designed to deny people their due process rights. As Justice Sotomayor observed in her dissent, ‘the Government’s conduct in this litigation poses an extraordinary threat to the rule of law.’ We would expect more from the Supreme Court of the United States as the Trump administration takes a sledgehammer to the Constitution.