What to know about the Supreme Court’s midnight Alien Enemies Act order

Less than two weeks after the Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump to use a controversial 18th century wartime authority to speed deportations, the issue has rocketed back to the justices in a second short-fuse appeal with enormous potential consequences.

Less than two weeks after the Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump to use a controversial 18th century wartime authority to speed deportations, the issue has rocketed back to the justices in a second short-fuse appeal with enormous potential consequences. The situation was entirely foreseeable. After handing down an opaque 5-4 order earlier this month that allowed both sides to claim victory, the nation’s highest court is being asked for a second time to halt the administration from using the Alien Enemies Act. That review will take place as lower courts begin to wrangle over what kind of notice the government must provide to those targeted under the act and what steps the migrants can take to fight it. In a rare overnight order handed down by the Supreme Court early Saturday morning, a majority of justices blocked the Trump administration from deporting a group of immigrants in Texas. Two conservatives — Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — dissented from the decision. The court’s brief order did not explain its reasoning. The court ordered the Trump administration to respond to the emergency appeal “as soon as possible.” In the meantime, the court said, “The government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this court.” And the Supreme Court signaled it is likely to say more in coming days or weeks about what will happen to the migrants at the center of several fast-moving court cases over the Alien Enemies Act playing out in courtrooms in New York, Colorado and Texas.