Good evening. I'm John Yang. In an unusual late-night order, the Supreme Court temporarily

barred the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan migrants being held in Texas

using an 18th century law called the Alien Enemies Act. The brief unsigned order came in

response to an emergency petition filed by the ACLU just hours before.

Justice's Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.

It's the latest chapter in the challenges to President Trump's deportation strategy,

which are being fought out in a number of federal courts.

Amy Howe covers the Supreme Court for her website, amy Elhaw.com, and for Scotis blog, she's also argued cases before the Supreme Court for her website, Amy Elhow.com, and for SCOTUS blog,

she's also argued cases before the Supreme Court.

Amy, what exactly did the court do today and maybe just as important, what didn't they do?

So what the court did was the court barred the federal government until the Supreme Court says otherwise from removing

Venezuelan migrants who are at a particular detention facility, really. The case comes out of the

Northern District of Texas where a facility known as the Blue Bonnet detention facility in Anson, Texas is located.

And so lawyers from the ACLU had come to the Supreme Court filing an emergency appeal,

asking the justices to block the removal of Venezuelan migrants from that facility to El Salvador.

And the Supreme Court at 1 a.m. on Saturday morning, from that facility to El Salvador.

And the Supreme Court at 1 a.m. on Saturday morning issued an order that said,

until further notice from this court, the federal government can't remove anyone from this district. The Supreme Court hasn't said anything about the substance of the president's order,

which he issued back in March, relying on this alien enemies act, this 1798 law that gives

the president the power to order the removal of enemy aliens without, you know, to have them be removed relatively quickly.

You know, the order has only been, the law has only been invoked three times in U.S. history

during the War of 1812, during World War I, and during World War II.

...