The U.S. Supreme Court issued rulings in favor of President Donald Trump on Monday in two separate cases: It granted a temporary stay allowing him to remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission (F.T.C.) and it lifted restrictions on immigration raids in Los Angeles, California.
Chief Justice John Roberts granted an administrative stay that enables Trump to keep Rebecca Kelly Slaughter off the F.T.C. Slaughter, a commissioner since 2018, had been removed earlier this year.
The stay pauses a lower court’s order compelling her reinstatement, while the Supreme Court reviews the matter. Roberts asked Slaughter’s legal team to file a response by September 15. The order did not indicate how the justices may rule in the final decision.
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On a separate matter, the Supreme Court lifted a lower-court restriction on immigration enforcement in the L.A. area. The court’s conservative majority allowed federal agents to conduct raids based on factors including appearance, language, and job type — actions a lower judge had deemed potentially unconstitutional search and seizure.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that ethnicity alone does not establish reasonable suspicion but may be considered among other factors.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor strongly dissented. She warned that the decision “allows the Government to seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job.”
She added, “Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.” Justice Sotomayor also criticized the notion that “all Latinos, U.S. citizens or not, who work low‑wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time.”
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The Supreme Court's orders are being criticized, including by legal experts.
Rep Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.) wrote on the social platform X: "SCOTUS is out of control. It is abusing the shadow emergency docket by reversing well-considered lower court opinions without full briefing, oral argument, or even any explanation whatsoever. Now ICE will continue to make unconstitutional arrests based solely on race."
Political commentator Sam Stein said in a post on X: "SCOTUS has basically given Trump whatever he has wanted, save for that very early Abrego Garcia order."
John Jackson, a U.S. veteran of the Ukrainian armed forces, wrote: "John Roberts doesn’t understand the moment we’re in. Giving Trump every procedural benefit possible while he burns down the government. We have a SCOTUS that is living in a different decade."
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Podcaster and former Obama advisor Dan Pfeiffer wrote: "There are only two possibilities -- John Roberts is so afraid of a constitutional crisis that he will give Trump everything he wants, or Roberts is 100% in on the MAGA project to destroy our democracy."
Immigration lawyer Nicolette Glazer said: "OMG! as Trump declares war on 'sanctuary cities' and sends military to aid DHS in mass raids SCOTUS --by granting a stay in the Perdomo -- has in essence taken the 4th Amedment off the table allowing non-citizens to be racially profiled and detained without any safeguards."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an attorney at the American Immigration Council, wrote on X: "It is not hyperbole to say that thanks to today's decision, every Latino citizen in Los Angeles should consider carrying their passport or birth certificate with them at all time. The Supreme Court has now essentially greenlit Trump's DHS demanding their papers at any point."
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich wrote: "Much of Trump's authoritarian power grab has been green-lit (at least temporarily) by the Supreme Court's 'shadow docket.' This allows justices to effectively make rulings in secret without explaining their decisions. Is it any wonder why so many do not trust the Roberts court?"
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