[La Cucaracha by Lalo Alcaraz, June 11, 2025.]
Fourth Amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Ruling in favor of the Trump administration once again, the Roberts Court removed a stay placed by a district court that barred — until the district judge could decide the case on its merits — masked government agents from detaining anyone who looks Latino, speaks with an accent, and appears to have a low-wage job at (for instance) a car wash, Home Depot, or restaurant.
The majority offered no reason or explanation for its decision (Kristi Noem, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, Et Al. v. Pedro Vasquez Perdomo, Et Al. On Application for Stay), though Justice Brett Kavanaugh offered a concurrence. Justice Sonia Sotomayer issued a written dissent (joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson). Her objections centered on the court’s abuse of the “emergency docket,” on the facts on the ground, and on judicial history regarding the Fourth Amendment:
During the raids, teams of armed and masked agents pulled up to car washes, tow yards, farms, and parks and began seizing individuals on sight, often before asking a single question.
The district court found that stopping individuals was unlawful because the basis for the stops failed to satisfy the Fourth Amendment’s requirement of reasonable suspicion.
Instead of allowing the District Court to consider these troubling allegations in the normal course, a majority of this Court decides to take the once-extraordinary step of staying the District Court’s order. That decision is yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket. 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. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.
In defiance of prior judicial decisions and the plain text of the Fourth Amendment:
The Government, and now the concurrence, has all but declared that all Latinos, U. S. citizens or not, who work low wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work, and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction.
She rejects Justice Kavenaugh’s claim (in his concurrence) that agents were merely engaging in “brief stops for questioning,” pointing to evidence that American citizens have been roughed up and hauled away.
They are seizing people using firearms, physical violence, and warehouse detentions. Nor are undocumented immigrants the only ones harmed by the Government’s conduct. United States citizens are also being seized, taken from their jobs, and prevented from working to support themselves and their families.
…
Countless people in the Los Angeles area have been grabbed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed simply because of their looks, their accents, and the fact they make a living by doing manual labor. Today, the Court needlessly subjects countless more to these exact same indignities.
The Republican majority on the United States Supreme Court continues to make decisions consistent with the policy preferences of the justices and in favor of the leader of the MAGA Republican Party. As usual in its shadow docket rulings, it offers no written opinion explaining the majority view.