A Week, Five Major Defeats - Trump's Power Fantasies Crash Against the Constitution

Donald Trump is in the middle of a series of legal defeats that are extraordinary even for his presidency, which is marked by constant fire. Within just a few days, one key pillar after another was pulled out from under him: first judges stopped the planned deportation of a group of Guatemalan children, then the practice of fast-track deportations far from the border - the centerpiece of his immigration policy - was struck down. Shortly afterward, a court blocked the deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles, and now the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has also blocked his attempt to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans en masse. And as if that were not enough, he now has to shelve the notorious ICE prison project "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Everglades. It is a week in which the judiciary has shown the president the limits of his power in rapid succession - so sharply that even his supporters must see that political will alone is no substitute for law.

https://kaizen-blog.org/en/ein-praesident-auf-der-anklagebank-richter-stoppt-trumps-einsatz-der-nationalgarde-in-los-angeles/ and https://kaizen-blog.org/en/wieder-ein-kleiner-erfolg-gericht-stoppt-abschiebung-von-guatemaltekischen-kindern/ and https://kaizen-blog.org/en/das-ende-von-alligator-alcatraz-ein-gerichtsurteil-als-fanal-fuer-rechtsstaat-und-umweltschutz/

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked President Trump's attempt to use the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to deport Venezuelans through expedited proceedings. Behind the sober docket number 25-10534 lies a ruling that redraws the limits of executive power - precise, concise, and a direct message to the White House. The judges made it unequivocally clear that migration pressure is not an "armed, organized" invasion and that the president may not impose wartime frameworks on civilian immigration proceedings. The injunction applies explicitly only to the use of the AEA - other lawful removal avenues remain open to the government. But the message is unmistakable: emergency rhetoric is no substitute for law.

The panel dissects the government's urgency arguments where it hurts: at the point of procedural entitlement and the reality of modern proceedings. "Modern due process doctrine requires us to decide what process is due today - based on today's facts," it states in substance. Unlike in 1946, no one is typing on typewriters today - e-filing, search engines, and digital case research condense a week's worth of paperwork into minutes. That the ACLU in this case "skipped the district court, leapfrogged our court, and secured emergency relief at the Supreme Court within minutes" is, for the judges, not a mere anecdote but proof: those who can obtain relief from the Supreme Court in 133 minutes do not need 30 days just to file a barebones habeas petition - the 30-day claim is, as they sharply quote Justice Scalia, "sheer applesauce." At the same time, they reject the claim of an attorney shortage: while the bar counted around 221,000 members in 1950, it surpassed 1.3 million by 2024 - Shakespeare's jibe about "the lawyers" appears, but only as ironic garnish, not as a legal argument.

The central pivot is the distinction from the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The plaintiffs sought to subject "all removals" to INA procedures. The court counters: the INA declares its procedure to be the "sole and exclusive" route of removal only "if the alien has been admitted" - that is, lawfully entered after inspection and authorization. That, the judges note, the plaintiffs have not even alleged, let alone proven with the required "clear showing." At this preliminary stage, that is enough to deny the "extraordinary and drastic" remedy of a preliminary injunction. The claim that the INA silently displaced the AEA also fails: the strong presumption against implied repeals has not been overcome - especially not in an area of national security.

The reasoning is most striking where the judges examine the harmony of the systems: for expedited proceedings under § 1225(b)(1) INA - against persons without valid entry documents or with less than two years of presence - proceedings must "in no case later than 7 days" after the removability determination begin and end - the Supreme Court has found nothing constitutionally wrong with that in Thuraissigiam. A constitutional bonus for "alien enemies" would paradoxically grant those with enemy status more procedural rights than other aliens in expedited proceedings. For that, the judges write, there is "no constitutional basis." Practice confirms the picture: named petitioners in Texas filed habeas petitions within two days of transfer - petitions were filed nationwide within the seven-day windows. A footnote notes that about 121 putative class members would even be eligible for the expedited INA procedure - a detail that undercuts the government's line but can be decisive on court days.

The skirmishes on the sidelines are also closed. The additional statutory objections - from the alleged primacy of INA procedures to withholding claims and alleged procedural violations in the AEA itself - would, according to the panel, bypass the constitutional core question posed by the Supreme Court - even if they were admitted, there is no "clear showing" of likely success on the merits. The CAT protection claims remain hanging in the air: the court notes that it is unclear whether the plaintiffs assert their own viable CAT claims or merely demand special avenues to bring such claims - without precision there can be no preliminary relief.

Politically, the ruling is a thunderclap. Legally, it is a return to first principles: statutes mean what they say - preliminary injunctions are the exception, not the rule - technological progress accelerates the exercise of rights rather than hindering it - emergency labels do not expand procedural frameworks. The case - W.M.M., F.G.M. and A.R.P. v. Donald J. Trump in his official capacity as well as a list of government and detention facility officials (from the Justice and Homeland Security Departments to the administrators of Bluebonnet, Eden, Prairieland, and Rolling Plains) - becomes a lesson in how closely courts keep to the track when the executive brings war instruments into immigration law.

That everything is going back to the Supreme Court is virtually certain. What is at stake there is now sharpened: may a president use 18th-century wartime law as a universal key for migration - or does the threshold of "armed, organized" threat remain insurmountable? The Fifth Circuit has set the bar high and placed the burden of proof where it belongs: on the government. Until then, what this ruling asserts and thoroughly justifies remains true: the rule of law is speed plus procedure, not speed instead of procedure.