A lowly federal district judge appointed at the last minute by President Joe Biden is essentially ignoring a U.S. Supreme Court ruling handed down on Monday allowing the Trump administration to proceed, for now, with deportations of illegal migrants to third countries.
On Monday, the Supreme Court approved the Trump administration’s request to pause a lower court injunction that had blocked deportations of individuals to third countries without prior notice.
The decision marks a near-term victory for the administration as it aims to implement its immigration crackdown swiftly.
The Court ruled 6-3 in favor of staying the injunction, with Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting.
The case involved a group of migrants contesting their deportations to third countries—nations other than their countries of origin.
Earlier this month, lawyers representing these migrants urged the Supreme Court to uphold a ruling by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, who had ordered the Trump administration to keep all migrants facing deportation to third countries in U.S. custody until further review.
Murphy, based in Boston, oversaw a class-action lawsuit brought by migrants challenging deportations to countries such as South Sudan, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and others that the administration has reportedly considered in its ongoing deportation efforts.
Murphy ruled that migrants must stay in U.S. custody until they have the opportunity to undergo a “reasonable fear interview,” allowing them to explain to U.S. officials any fears of persecution or torture if released into the country.
Murphy emphasized that his order does not prevent Trump from “executing removal orders to third countries.” Rather, he clarified in a prior ruling that it “simply requires” the government to “comply with the law when carrying out” such removals, in accordance with the U.S. Constitution and in response to the Trump administration’s surge of last-minute removals and deportations.
In appealing the case to the Supreme Court, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that Murphy’s ruling had prevented the government from deporting “some of the worst of the worst illegal aliens,” including a group of migrants sent to South Sudan earlier this year without due process or prior notice.
In a separate argument, he reiterated that the migrants must remain in U.S. custody at a military base in Djibouti until each has the opportunity to undergo a “reasonable fear interview,” allowing them to explain to U.S. officials any fears of persecution or torture if released into South Sudanese custody.
Following the high court’s ruling on Monday, Murphy issued another order that essentially ignored the Supreme Court’s decision, claiming that his case wasn’t “properly” before the nation’s highest court — a ruling that led to outrage from conservatives.
“I’ve said repeatedly these Democrat judges don’t care what higher courts including SCOTUS say. They will advance their radical anti Trump crusade come hell or high water. Murphy was recommended by Liz Warren and Ed Markey, appointed by Biden. He DGAF what SCOTUS decides,” legal correspondent Julie Kelly posted on X in response to Murphy’s updated ruling.
“Maybe John Roberts will start to realize the mess he’s made particularly in deportation cases. Murphy was confirmed after Trump won. He’s a lightweight but an effective activist. The big question now—what will SCOTUS do in Alien Enemies Act litigation after such egregious involvement?” she added.
“A federal judge just issued an order explicitly and blatantly ignoring the SCOTUS ruling today allowing deportations to continue, claiming without evidence the SCOTUS ruling is irrelevant to the case because the issue wasn’t ‘properly’ before SCOTUS,” The Federalist CEO and co-founder Sean Davis added in response to Murphy’s Monday ruling.