The Supreme Court cleared the way for federal agents to resume sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles on Monday, delivering a boost to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort.
The court’s conservative majority overruled a federal judge’s July 11 order that blocked federal agents from stopping or detaining people without “reasonable suspicion” they are in the country illegally.
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U.S. District Judge Maame Frimpong had argued that the Trump administration’s actions likely violated the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.
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But in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court granted an emergency request from the Justice Department to put a hold on the order, allowing the raids to resume.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that “apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion,” but it can be a “’relevant factor’ when considered along with other salient factors.”
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
Justice Sotomayor called the decision “another grave misuse of our emergency docket,” in her written dissent.
“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent,” she wrote.
This is a developing story.