When the Supreme Court Spoke With One Voice

In an extraordinary, if perhaps temporary, rebuke to the Trump administration, the Supreme Court issued an order at around 1 a.m. on Saturday forbidding the government from deporting a group of Venezuelan nationals under the Alien Enemies Act.

The ruling, by a presumed seven-to-two vote, signaled genuine fury at the failure of Trump officials to abide by the law and, even more to the point, the directives of judges, including those on the Supreme Court.

The federal judiciary is being forced to confront a fundamental question: what to do when its orders are defied. This is not the first time that the court has confronted this question. A case from another point in American history — the postwar effort to desegregate America’s schools — offers a guide for the justices as they move forward.