Liberal Supreme Court Justice Sides With Trump Admin In Key Case

In a surprising turn, one of the Supreme Court’s most liberal justices has sided with President Donald J. Trump’s administration in a deportation case.

Justice Elena Kagan on Thursday denied an emergency request from four Mexican nationals seeking to block their deportation so they could continue appealing their removal orders.

According to court filings, Fabian Lagunas Espinoza, Maria Angelica Flores Ulloa, and their two sons fled Guerrero, Mexico, in 2021 after being threatened by the Los Rojos cartel. The petition claimed cartel members ordered them to vacate their home within 24 hours or face death.

The migrants also pointed to violent attacks against other relatives, but both an immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals rejected their asylum claims. In February 2025, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld those rulings.

Despite “credible and detailed testimony and documentary evidence showing they are targets of cartel violence due to their family ties and refusal to comply with extortion demands,” attorney LeRoy George argued in the petition, the Supreme Court declined to intervene. Kagan, acting alone, could have referred the case to the full court but instead dismissed the request without comment.

The decision effectively clears the way for the family’s removal, as they had been ordered to report to immigration officials on April 17.

Separately, a Fox News legal analyst said Thursday that a different immigration-related case involving the deportation of an MS-13 gang member highlighted the ongoing judicial tug-of-war over immigration enforcement.

Chief Judge James Boasberg had attempted to hold Trump administration officials in contempt for deporting El Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia — an MS-13 member — before his case concluded. But the Supreme Court vacated Boasberg’s order, ruling the case should have been heard in Texas, not Washington, D.C.

Kerri Urbahn, speaking on Fox & Friends, said Boasberg appeared “embarrassed” by the high court’s ruling.

“Frankly, Brian, when I was reading the decision yesterday, I felt like it seemed a little desperate. I think the guy is embarrassed,” she told host Brian Kilmeade.

Urbahn added that while Boasberg expected institutional backing, the justices rebuked his power grab. “The Supreme Court didn’t support him. They vacated his order.”

For conservatives, the two cases underscore a key theme: under Trump’s leadership, immigration enforcement is once again on firm constitutional ground. Even a liberal justice like Elena Kagan is siding with the rule of law, not open-borders activism.