
US President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law in the East Room at the White House in Washington on January 29, 2025. The photograph capturing this moment was taken by Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Sipa USA/Sipa via AP Images.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) won an immediate victory against the Trump administration in court on Saturday.
Attorneys representing several pseudonymous Venezuelan men have taken legal action against the government to prevent the enforcement of an ancient wartime law from the 18th century. The lawsuit aims to stop President Donald Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to support the acceleration of deportations.
The ACLU, in collaboration with Democracy Forward, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C. focused on restraining the authority of the executive branch, filed the lawsuit as a precautionary measure. They anticipate that President Trump will draw upon this obscure law to advance his administration’s deportation agenda.
In quick fashion, and at least for now, D.C. District Court Chief Judge James E. Boasberg, a jurist who got his start under George W. Bush and was then promoted by Barack Obama, sided with the plaintiffs.