What the Supreme Court Does in the Shadows

This message comes from Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. When you think about the Supreme Court, chances are you're thinking about the big decisions, Roe v Wade, Brown v Board of Education, Obergefell v Hodges, Dobbs v Jackson. These Supreme Court decisions are the ones that make headlines and, eventually, history books. A lot of them come out around this time of year. They're decisions made after the justices sit through hours of oral arguments, write pages and pages of explanation, opinions, citing precedent and making justifications. These decisions have signed arguments for and against that clearly show how each justice decided. They're part of what's called the court's merits docket. But this year, the Supreme Court has been in the news a lot for a different type of decision, ones that are taking place quickly in the shadows, often without full briefing and oral argument. President Trump invoked a wartime law that gives him sweeping deportation powers. A rarely used law from more than two hundred years ago. Hundreds of people who it accuses of being Venezuelan gang members. To quickly expel them without hearings or due process. They were flown to El Salvador. Here's an example you might remember. On 03/15/2025, President Trump dusted off a rarely used wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. We covered its history in an episode back in April. This act gives the president the power to quickly deport noncitizens from an enemy nation during a war or invasion. He used it to order the deportation of Venezuelan migrants who he claimed were members of a Venezuelan prison gang, Trende Aragua. In his order, Trump described Venezuela's Trende Aragua prison gang as a force invading The US. Just hours later, a legal scramble was set in motion. A federal judge blocked his administration from using this law to immediately deport migrants. The Trump administration wasn't ready to give up. It called for backup from the Supreme Court and filed an application for emergency relief to block that judge's order and resume deportations. And on 04/07/2025. This evening, the US Supreme Court backed the Trump administration in its efforts to continue deporting what it says are Venezuelan gang members. But then less than two weeks later, the Supreme Court stepped in again with an unsigned four sentence long order issued in the middle of the night. The Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to temporarily cease deport a group of Venezuelans. The opposite stance. And then in the resulting confusion, the court stepped in for the third time to clarify on May 16. The unsigned order says the Trump administration did not give people at a detention center enough time to challenge their deportations. If all that is giving you whiplash, believe me, we're right there with …