Trump slams 'weak' judges as deportation row intensifies

Clash over Trump's deportation powers deepens, Supreme Court intervenes, Democrats warn of constitutional crisis.

The clash over U.S. President Donald Trump's bid to exercise unprecedented powers in deporting migrants deepened on Sunday (April 20, 2025) as he again bashed the judiciary, while a top Democrat warned the country was "closer and closer" to a constitutional crisis.

The latest events followed a dramatic intervention by the Supreme Court in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday (April 19, 2025) to temporarily block Mr. Trump's use of an obscure law to deport Venezuelan migrants without due process.

Mr. Trump lashed out Sunday (April 20, 2025) on his Truth Social platform, not specifically naming the high court but slamming the "WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Judges and Law Enforcement Officials who are allowing this sinister attack on our Nation to continue, an attack so violent that it will never be forgotten!"

Samuel Alito, one of two conservative high-court justices to vote against the halt, called the emergency ruling by the court's majority "legally questionable."

"Literally in the middle of the night, the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief... without hearing from the opposing party," Mr. Alito wrote in his dissent.

The court's order at least temporarily halted what rights groups warned were imminent deportations of Venezuelan migrants being held in Texas, who have been accused of being gang members.

More broadly, the decision temporarily prevents the government from continuing to expel migrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act — last used to round up Japanese-American citizens during World War II.