The Supreme Court has stayed a federal judgment restricting the government’s use of third-country removals, allowing the policy to continue while the justices review the case. The order does not decide whether the policy is lawful.
In a brief entry dated September 29, the court granted the government’s application in Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D. It also treated that application as a petition for review and agreed to hear the case during its December argument session. The lower court’s February 25 judgment remains on hold until the Supreme Court sends down its own judgment.
The justices directed the parties to address the district court’s jurisdiction, its authority to grant relief covering a class of people and to set aside agency guidance under the Administrative Procedure Act, and whether the government’s guidance complies with immigration law, due process and protections against return to torture. The order supplies no explanation of the court’s reasoning. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they would have denied the stay.
The immediate effect is procedural but consequential: the government can proceed under the challenged guidance while the larger legal questions remain open. The December argument will determine whether the court reaches those questions and how broadly it frames its review.
Official Supreme Court docket, No. 26A406
