'Quite the loss' for Trump: Expert lays out implications of new SCOTUS smackdown

On Friday, May 16, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Trump Administration from using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport migrants being held in North Texas. The dissenters included Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, while other GOP appointees sided with Democratic-appointed Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Attorney Lisa Rubin offered legal analysis of the ruling during a Monday morning, May 19 appearance on MSNBC's "Way Too Early," characterizing it as a major setback for the Trump Administration's mass deportation agenda.

Rubin told host Ali Vitali, "As notable from the president's own social media reactions, this is not exactly a win for the (Trump) Administration. Rather, it's quite the loss for them, and I want to break down for you and our viewers why."

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The MSNBC legal analysis continued, "The first thing is that the Supreme Court is saying to the administration: We're not going to decide exactly how much notice people are entitled to in order to have due process, but 24 hours, that ain't it. And we're going to leave to the Fifth Circuit to try to decide exactly how much time somebody needs to contact counsel, file a habeas petition and pursue appropriate relief. That is what due process requires here."

The High Court, Rubin explained, is "going to send" the matter "back down "to a federal appeals court to make two decisions."

"One of those is the likelihood that the plaintiffs will succeed on the merits of their claim," Rubin told Vitali. "That includes an examination of the Alien Enemies Act itself. This is a Supreme Court basically saying: You keep saying that judges don't have the right to look at whether you made this decision properly — we're telling you, in fact, they do, and they can examine the legality of your actions under this Alien Enemies Act and determine, for example, whether or not there's an invasion or an incursion that would justify invoking the Act as well as deciding how much notice…. And the thing I think the president is most upset about is the length of the injunction that the Supreme Court is granting here."

Rubin continued, "Because they are saying: We are going to prevent you from deporting this particular group of immigrants who are being held in a particular facility in Texas — not only until the Fifth Circuit makes a decision, but up through and until it comes back to us and we make a decision whether or not to review it. And as the president himself notes, that could be a long time. That could be months here, Ali."

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Rubin noted the contributions of two Trump-appointed justices — Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh — to a ruling he was very disappointed by.

Rubin told Vitali, "Amy Coney Barrett is fascinating here. And I also want to tell folks: Don't look past Justice Kavanaugh, because in this particular decision, Justice Kavanaugh is really interesting. He has a concurrence where he basically says: I agree with everything that's been said in this majority opinion except for one thing — I would decide the ultimate issue now. Don't have it go back down to the lower court and then come back up to us."

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