Trump-appointed judge calls Trump’s Alien Enemies Act invocation ‘unlawful’. The Texas judge’s ruling is significant because it dealt head-on with the merits of the wartime law.

President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act has faced intense preliminary litigation in courts around the country, leading to rulings such as the Supreme Court’s insistence that people potentially subject to the act must receive due process. But a new and significant ruling from a Trump-appointed judge on Thursday gets to the heart of the matter, deeming the president’s invocation itself “unlawful.”

The 1798 act was previously used only during declared wars. The text of the act says it’s for “[w]henever there is a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government.”.....

The Trump appointee reviewed the historical record from the time of the act’s passage and found that the terms “invasion” or “predatory incursion” are meant to refer to “an organized, armed force entering the United States to engage in conduct destructive of property and human life in a specific geographical area.” Applying that background to Trump’s proclamation, the judge said TdA’s activities as described in the proclamation don’t qualify under the act.

While this is just one ruling from one (Trump-appointed) judge in one district, it shows the difficulty the administration could face in ultimately prevailing before the Supreme Court on the merits of the issue. Other trial and appellate court judges around the country could also favorably cite Rodriguez’s ruling if they agree with it, though they wouldn’t be bound by it. Trial judges are bound by appellate rulings in their circuits, and all judges are bound by the Supreme Court. Rodriguez sits in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the most conservative circuit, which would typically be the next step on the appellate chain if the government chooses to challenge the ruling.

In any event, Rodriguez’s decision doesn’t prevent the administration from using normal immigration authorities outside the rarely used act to carry out deportations.

The new ruling also underscores the illegality of the administration having already summarily removed people to El Salvador under the act and deposited them into a notorious prison there. Lawyers are also pressing to get them returned to the United States. And the ruling comes as the administration fights against returning Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who was also illegally deported to that country (albeit not under the Alien Enemies invocation).