On Monday (Sept. 8), the conservative majority of the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that lifted limitations on “roving” patrols by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Los Angeles, California, detaining those who simply looked Latino or spoke Spanish. It was done in a “shadow docket,” which refers to “orders and summary decisions that defy [the Court’s] normal procedural regularity.” The term was first coined in 2015 by University of Chicago law professor William Baude and has been used frequently by the Court during the second term of President Donald Trump for cases including that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The restrictions had been placed on them in June due to a lower court ruling by District Court Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong who noted “a mountain of evidence” that agents were violating people’s rights in arrests and stoppages in ways that violated the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which prohibits unlawful government seizure. Being a shadow docket ruling, there was no detailed explanation from the majority from the decision, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote an opinon that in some ways defended Judge Frimpong’s order despite voting to overrule it, citing the large undocumented population in Los Angeles and writing that race can be a relevant factor.
The ruling brought forth a fiery dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina elected to the Supreme Court. She was joined by Justices Ketanji Brown-Jackson and Elena Kagan. “We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low-wage job,” Sotomayor wrote.” Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”
Immigration advocates, lawmakers, and other leaders openly decried the ruling. “Trump’s hand-picked Supreme Court majority just became the Grand Marshal for a parade of racial terror in Los Angeles,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement, vowing to continue to fight against the attacks.
Los Angeles Worker Center Network Executive Director Armando Gudino underscored the danger for anyone of color in a press conference after the ruling was issued. “Immigration agents are now being given the power to profile, stop, detain, and arrest people because of the color of their skin, the language they speak, or the work that they do,” he said, adding: “In doing so, they have effectively legalized racial profiling and by extension racial discrimination.”
