The Daily Blast: Trump’s Arrests Hit by Major Legal Setback as Stephen Miller Seethes

The DSR Network

Chris Cotnoir

Government

4.5 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

Big news: A federal judge just ruled that President Donald Trump’s renditions under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act are illegal. It’s a crucial moment in the battle against Trump’s lawlessness. Meanwhile, Stephen Miller ranted wildly at the media for daring to ask hard questions about the wrongfully-deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, falsely stating as fact that he’s an “MS-13 terrorist” and raging at the very idea that migrants he labels “terrorists” should get due process. It’s a clear sign of Miller’s certainty that he can label anyone a “terrorist” by fiat and that the administration can get away with literally anything. We talked to the great legal commentator Leah Litman, author of Lawless, a new book about the Supreme Court. She explains why the ruling suggests the courts may not give Trump the deference he’d hoped for as commander in chief to reinvent reality to carry out his illegal renditions—and why Miller’s project may be in the process of seriously overreaching. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
0:16.5	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
0:34.9	Big news, a federal judge has ruled that President Donald Trump's arrests and removals under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act are illegal.
0:38.5	This is one of the most important rulings yet in the battle against Trump's lawlessness. In fact, this ruling suggests that in this regard, things may get worse for Trump.
0:45.0	It opens the door to the possibility that the courts may not give Trump the deference he had hoped for
0:50.6	as commander-in-chief to effectively reinvent reality to carry out his lawless designs.
0:56.6	Today we're talking about all of this with one of our favorite legal commentators, Leah Littman,
1:01.1	author of a new book about the Supreme Court called Lawless.
1:04.6	Leah, thank you so much for coming on.
1:06.5	Thanks for having me.
1:08.0	So federal district judge Fernando Rodriguez, a Trump appointee, just issued this
1:12.8	ruling in the case involving Venezuelans who have been designated as members of the Trenda
1:17.6	Aragua gang and many of whom are being removed to El Salvador pursuant to the Alien Enemy's
1:23.2	Act of 1798. The judge ruled that this use of the statute in this manner is illegal. Leah, can you
1:29.5	explain which of the plaintiffs this applies to sort of in the landscape, the broader
1:34.5	landscape of lawsuits on this and what it means? Yeah. So this particular case concerns individuals
1:41.6	who are detained in that district, so in the Southern District of Texas.
1:47.2	And that's significant and partially a result of the fact that the Supreme Court held that
1:52.2	these challenges to the Illian Enemies Act had to proceed via habeas petitions.
1:57.3	And so it's in part because of that procedural posture that the district court said this ruling just applies to individuals who are being detained in the jurisdiction.
2:07.4	Of course, right, the Southern District of Texas is not the only place where the administration is detaining people from where it might try to then summarily expel them to El Salvador.
2:18.5	There's still a ton of moving parts in this litigation.
	...

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