The Supreme Court on Friday ruled 7-2 against the Trump administration’s attempt to swiftly deport Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act, requiring officials to provide more than 24 hours for detainees to challenge their removal.

“Under these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster,” the majority wrote.

The unsigned decision clarified that the Court was only ruling on the notice requirement and not whether the Trump administration can use the Alien Enemies Act itself.

“To be clear, we decide today only that the detainees are entitled to more notice than was given on April 18,” the Court stated in its ruling, NBC News reported.

The Alien Enemies Act, enacted in 1798, allows the president to apprehend and deport citizens of a hostile nation during wartime or invasion.

Administration officials argued that Venezuela’s government has used Tren de Aragua as a proxy force, effectively weaponizing the gang to destabilize the United States through criminal activity and drug trafficking.

Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, with Alito writing there were no grounds for the Court to intervene “at such an early stage of the litigation.”

“The Court’s failure to defer to the Executive Branch in immigration matters in which national security is at stake represents an extraordinary departure from our precedents,” Alito wrote.

The Court did acknowledge it was “far removed from the circumstances on the ground” and was not best positioned to determine the exact deportation process that should be followed.

The case has been sent back to an appeals court to establish appropriate due process procedures for the detainees in yet another legal impediment to Trump’s immigration agenda.

President Trump on Friday accused the high court of “being played by the radical left,” who only succeed through “intimidation of the court.”

THE SUPREME COURT IS BEING PLAYED BY THE RADICAL LEFT LOSERS, WHO HAVE NO SUPPORT, THE PUBLIC HATES THEM, AND THEIR ONLY HOPE IS THE INTIMIDATION OF THE COURT, ITSELF. WE CAN’T LET THAT HAPPEN TO OUR COUNTRY!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2025

“Today’s ruling effectively extends the temporary freeze that the justices put on Alien Enemies Act removals from the Northern District of Texas back on April 19,” said Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at Georgetown Law.

“Because lower courts have blocked use of the act in every other district in which the president has sought to invoke it, that means it’s effectively pausing all removals under the act until the 5th Circuit – and, presumably, the Supreme Court itself – conclusively resolves whether they’re legal and how much process is due if so.”

WASHINGTON—About 1.4 million illegal immigrants are enrolled in Medicaid, something House Republicans hope to change.

To the White House, this is a clear instance of lawmakers eliminating fraud and saving taxpayers’ money. But to Democrats, it’s the worst of all possible things: Republican attempts to cut Medicaid.

A provision in the budget reconciliation currently being debated on Capitol Hill would block anyone from receiving Medicaid if they cannot verify immigration status, nationality, or citizenship.

“We’re making sure no illegals are going to be in the program,” Georgia Republican Rep. Buddy Carter told The Daily Signal. “We are making sure people aren’t registered in more than one state. We’re making sure there are going to be work requirements…to fear-monger that we’re trying to kick people off is simply untrue.”

Every Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee opposed the bill, Breitbart reports, and vociferously condemned it for blocking illegals from receiving Medicaid. And the Democrat lawmakers argue that the bill is purposefully snatching healthcare from Americans in order to fund the wealthy.

Just like we’ve said all along, @HouseCommerce‘s reconciliation bill addresses illegal immigrants, ineligible recipients, and able bodied adults choosing not to work. pic.twitter.com/luCeVKNvTv

— Energy and Commerce Committee (@HouseCommerce) May 13, 2025

In a statement, Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D, NJ) argued that “this is not a moderate bill, and it is not focused on cutting ‘waste, fraud, and abuse.’”

(Photo by Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Instead,” Pallone argued, “Republicans are intentionally taking health care away from millions of Americans so they can give giant tax breaks to the ultra-rich who don’t need them.”

The White House has a different take.

“President Trump and Republicans are protecting Medicaid,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told The Daily Wire, “and that starts with kicking 1.4 million illegal immigrants off the program to prioritize the Americans who need it.”

Conservative healthcare experts agree. They say the bill is not full of Medicaid cuts, but changes to ensure the program is being received fairly.

“The proposals are not benefit or service cuts, but commonsense administrative changes aimed at weeding out fraud, waste and abuse and bringing about much-needed transparency, accountability, and fairness to the program,” Nina Schaefer, the director of the Center for Health and Welfare Policy at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Wire.

Sally Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, argued that “Republicans have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to restore fiscal sanity to Medicaid.”

Pipes, who praised the package for incentivizing states not to grant Medicaid to illegal immigrants, actually believes the package doesn’t go far enough, calling for Republicans to “reduce the federal match for Medicaid’s expansion population to the level for the legacy population.”

“States currently receive seven times more federal funding for covering the able-bodied under Obamacare’s expansion of the program than for covering Medicaid’s legacy population of pregnant women, the disabled, and children,” she added. “That discrepancy makes no sense.”

The White House is aggressively defending the reconciliation bill, dubbed “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” by President Donald Trump, as a “generational opportunity to deliver the long-term changes Americans voted for.” They argue that it is the largest tax cut in American history, including no tax on tips or tax on overtime, secures the border permanently by funding the border wall and boosting law enforcement on the front lines, modernizes air traffic control, and blocks tax-payer funded gender procedures for minors.

And the Trump administration clearly considers its efforts to boot illegals off Medicaid as a winning message, while Democrats continue to hype their concerns despite polling showing that 71% of Americans strongly favor removing illegals from the program and requiring all who want Medicaid to work if they are able.