US Supreme Court Allows Trump Administration Deportations to South Sudan

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision led by its conservative majority, has allowed the Trump administration to proceed with deporting eight migrants, convicted criminals from various countries, to South Sudan, a war-torn nation where they have no familial or cultural ties. This ruling overturned a series of injunctions by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy that temporarily blocked the deportations and required migrants to have meaningful opportunities to contest removal to third countries where they might face danger. The Court's unsigned order clarified that Murphy’s subsequent rulings were unenforceable, effectively siding with the administration’s position that the judge was defying the Supreme Court's earlier stay. Justices Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, criticizing the decision for providing the government with privileged access to the Court and highlighting the risks of torture and death the deportees could face upon arrival. The migrants have been held at a U.S. military base in Djibouti pending resolution, and the administration defends the third-country deportations as necessary due to some home countries' refusal to accept returnees. The ruling underscores the Court's broad interpretation of immigration authority and limits on judicial intervention in deportation processes.