Appeals Court Dodges Ruling on Trump's Alien Enemies Act Use

A federal appeals court on Thursday sidestepped a major ruling on President Donald Trump's contentious use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members, dismissing the case because the administration had already removed all three plaintiffs using alternative legal authorities.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, considered the most conservative in the country, said the deportations rendered the case moot, leaving the underlying legal question about the wartime law's use unresolved.

"This development is unobjectionable," Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote in the ruling. "The Supreme Court expressly said that the government could remove the named petitioners and putative class under other laws. And petitioners point out no infirmities in their removal."

The case had a lengthy history. Last year, the Supreme Court blocked the government from immediately removing the alleged Tren de Aragua gang members without giving them an opportunity to challenge the action. When the case returned to the 5th Circuit, a three-judge panel ruled against the Trump administration in September. But the full 17-member court agreed to rehear the case in January at the administration's request.

In its Thursday decision, the court refused a request from the plaintiffs' lawyers to substitute new plaintiffs in place of the men who had already been deported.

The ruling underscores how the administration's push to invoke the Alien Enemies Act — a rarely used 18th-century wartime statute — has largely fizzled in the face of legal challenges. It also likely delays a definitive Supreme Court ruling on whether the law can be used this way, leaving the question open for future cases.