NEW: SCOTUS shoots down a federal judge's effort to protect 8 men from being expelled--without due process--to South Sudan

[In It to Win It]

Mark Joseph Stern
‪@mjsdc.bsky.social‬

NEW: SCOTUS shoots down a federal judge’s effort to protect eight men from being expelled—without due process—to South Sudan, where they face torture and death.

Dissenting, Sotomayor says the court’s “indefensible” decision makes it complicit in “lawlessness.” https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a1153_2co3.pdf



The eight men in this case are currently shackled in a shipping container (their makeshift jail) in Djibouti under U.S. custody. The Supreme Court’s decision means the government can expel them to South Sudan, a country in which they have never stepped foot, where they may well be tortured to death.

Jackson joins Sotomayor’s dissent; Kagan does not. She says today’s order is a proper application of an earlier decision allowing expulsions to third countries without due process (from which she dissented). This split between the liberals is becoming familiar.

NEW: SCOTUS shoots down a federal judge’s effort to protect eight men from being expelled—without due process—to South Sudan, where they face torture and death.

Dissenting, Sotomayor says the court’s “indefensible” decision makes it complicit in “lawlessness.” www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) 2025-07-03T20:39:17.934Z

Justice Sotomayor: "Today's order clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial."

— Joshua J. Friedman (@joshuajfriedman.com) 2025-07-03T20:51:58.666Z

Over dissents from Justices Sotomayor & Jackson (and a rare concurrence from Justice Kagan), #SCOTUS "clarifies" that its 6/23 ruling staying a district court's injunction against third-country removals *also* applies to the district court's later order requiring a remedy for those already removed:

— Steve Vladeck (@stevevladeck.bsky.social) 2025-07-03T20:30:54.775Z

Justice Sotomayor, dissenting from #SCOTUS's "clarification" of its unexplained June 23 stay in the D.V.D. case:

"The Court’s continued refusal to justify its extraordinary decisions in this case, even as it faults lower courts for failing properly to divine their import, is indefensible."

— Steve Vladeck (@stevevladeck.bsky.social) 2025-07-03T20:35:05.188Z

"Today’s order clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial."

— Steve Vladeck (@stevevladeck.bsky.social) 2025-07-03T20:35:54.438Z

Sotomayor: “Today’s order clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial.”

— Matt Ford (@mford.bsky.social) 2025-07-03T20:48:45.597Z

[newdeal2]

1. May they someday find themselves in South Sudan then

Not of their own choosing, of course.

[Bayard]

2. What's up with Kagan?

What's worse--being tortured to death, or eaten by alligators?

[Celerity]

3. see this: Elena Kagan Keeps Joining Conservative Decisions. Why?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220456570

[In It to Win It]

4. Kagan is usually a process and procedure wonk.

Last edited Thu Jul 3, 2025, 06:42 PM - Edit history (1)

Her position is simply the court made its decision, and while she does disagree with that decision, the lower court has to follow it.