4th Circuit Court of Appeals Rules Against Trump DOJ on Garcia

UPDATE: John Roberts Pauses Ruling Requiring Trump Administration To Return Man Mistakenly Deported To El Salvador

In a resounding decision on Monday, the court unequivocally rejected President Donald Trump’s administration’s attempts to evade the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States by the midnight deadline. J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a nominee of former President Ronald Reagan, was particularly scathing in his response to the government’s arguments.

“The government has admitted that it was a grave error to disregard this process,” Wilkinson wrote. “If indeed it was a mistake, one would expect the government to take steps to correct it. Most of us strive to rectify our mistakes. However, to my knowledge, the government has made no effort to do so in this case. The circumstances of this case raise the alarming possibility of a dangerous loophole: the government could whisk individuals away to foreign prisons in defiance of court orders and then claim, under the guise of its Article II powers, that it is no longer responsible for them, leaving no recourse. It requires a great deal of imagination to grasp the extent of this lawlessness, a path that the courts cannot tolerate.”

Let us not forget the warning: first they came for your neighbor, and then they came for you.”

Our fundamental protections demand that every individual is granted their day in court, and they stand innocent until proven guilty—a powerful affirmation of justice that we must fiercely uphold!