Fifth Circuit Ducks Trump's Alien Enemies Act Case

Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote that the deportations that mooted the case were "unobjectionable." She added: "The Supreme Court expressly said that the government could remove the named petitioners and putative class under other laws. And petitioners point out no infirmities in their removal."

Judge James Ho, writing in a concurring opinion, argued the court should have decided the case on the merits and should have held that the president is entitled to absolute deference when he determines that an "invasion" has occurred, according to Reason's account of the ruling.

Ilya Somin, the George Mason University law professor who co-authored an amicus brief against the administration on behalf of the Cato Institute, the Brennan Center and others, wrote that the dismissal leaves the key question unresolved and presumably wipes out the earlier panel opinion that went against Trump.

Conservative outlet RedState summed up the anticlimax in its headline: "After All That, 5th Circuit's Trump Alien Enemies Act Case Goes Poof."

The New York Times called it a messy conclusion to a long-running legal battle that had seemed destined to reach the Supreme Court.