Supreme Court Sides With Trump On Fast-Track Deportations

The Supreme Court rejected an ACLU-backed bid to slow deportations Thursday, dealing a major victory to the Trump administration and denying some asylum seekers the right to make their case to a federal judge.

A Sri Lankan migrant named Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam, who was apprehended just 25 yards from the southern border after entering the country illegally, is at the center of the case. The legal question was whether asylum seekers can seek habeas corpus, the basic right to have your detention reviewed by a judge, when they are fast-tracked for removal.

"This ruling fails to live up to the Constitution's bedrock principle that individuals deprived of their liberty have their day in court, and this includes asylum seekers," said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt, who argued before the justices for Thuraissigiam. "This decision means that some people facing flawed deportation orders can be forcibly removed with no judicial oversight, putting their lives in grave danger."

Thursday's decision follows a Tuesday ruling from a federal appeals court that allowed the Trump administration to expand fast-track deportations. Taken together, the rulings are a boon to Trump's efforts to speed the pace of deportations, burnishing his border hawk credentials ahead of the November election.

The bottom-line outcome was 7-2. Justice Samuel Alito delivered the majority opinion, which the Court's conservatives joined. Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg agreed with the result but did not join the majority. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, joined by Justice Elena Kagan.