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Supreme Court clears way for Venezuelan deportations to resume

WASHINGTON (NYT) — The Supreme Court ruled Monday night that the Trump administration could continue to deport Venezuelan migrants using a wartime powers act for now, overturning a lower court that had put a temporary stop to the deportations.

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The decision marks a victory for the Trump administration, although the ruling did not address the constitutionality of using the Alien Enemies Act to send the migrants to a prison in El Salvador. The justices instead issued a narrow procedural ruling, saying migrants’ lawyers had filed their lawsuit in the wrong court.

The justices said it should have been filed in Texas, where the Venezuelans are being held, rather than a court in Washington.

All nine justices agreed that the Venezuelan migrants detained in the United States must receive advance notice and the opportunity to challenge their deportation before they could be removed, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurrence.

The split among the court was over where — and how — that should happen.

The justices ordered that the Venezuelan migrants must be told that they were subject to removal under the Alien Enemies Act “within a reasonable time” for them to challenge their removal before they are deported. That finding could impose significant restrictions on how the administration might attempt to use the act in the future.

President Donald Trump wrote on social media that he viewed the decision as a victory.

Man’s 7 ‘emotional support’ tigers seized in Nevada

(NYT) — A Nevada man was arrested last week after seven tigers that he claimed were his emotional support animals were seized from his property, local authorities said.

Karl Mitchell, 71, was arrested Wednesday at his property in Pahrump, an unincorporated town in Nye County about 50 miles west of Las Vegas, on charges of resisting arrest and possession of a gun by a prohibited person, according to records from the Nye County Sheriff’s Office.

A SWAT team had entered the property to seize the tigers, which the Sheriff’s Office said Mitchell had been keeping without the permit required by the county. Mitchell refused to provide keys to the tiger cages and was then arrested just before 8 a.m., according to the documents. A handgun was also found in the bedroom of Mitchell, who is a felon, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Mitchell was released later that evening, according to the records.

Sheriff Joe McGill of Nye County told KSNV, the NBC affiliate in Las Vegas, that the investigation into Mitchell, who was also being evicted from his property, had begun several months ago.

In a phone interview Sunday, Mitchell, who described himself as a veteran with PTSD, said that a doctor with the Department of Veterans Affairs had approved of his keeping the Bengal tigers as “emotional support” animals. He also provided what appeared to be a letter from the doctor. The doctor did not immediately respond to a phone call seeking comment Monday.

Three or four of the seized tigers, Mitchell said in the interview, came from Joe Exotic, the former Oklahoma zoo owner featured in the 2020 Netflix documentary series “Tiger King” who is now in federal prison.