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Kavanaugh cites precedent, ‘widespread sense’…
U.S. Supreme Court docket
Kavanaugh cites precedent, ‘widespread sense’ in supporting SCOTUS order permitting immigration stops
By Debra Cassens Weiss
September 9, 2025, 8:46 am CDT
Justice Brett Kavanaugh defined his settlement with a U.S. Supreme Court docket keep on Monday that allowed the federal authorities to proceed making immigration stops within the Los Angeles space primarily based on components that embody obvious ethnicity and the kind of work completed. (Photograph by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Publish)
Justice Brett Kavanaugh defined his settlement with a U.S. Supreme Court docket keep on Monday that allowed the federal authorities to proceed making immigration stops within the Los Angeles space primarily based on components that embody obvious ethnicity and the kind of work completed.
In a concurrence, Kavanaugh mentioned obvious ethnicity alone doesn’t justify affordable suspicion supporting an immigration cease, however it may be a related issue when mixed with different components.
The excessive courtroom’s three liberal justices dissented.
The Supreme Court docket’s Monday order quickly stayed a federal decide’s determination that barred U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from making investigative stops primarily based on 4 components, alone or mixed. They’re:
Presence at explicit areas, akin to automotive washes, day laborer pickup websites and agricultural websites
The kind of work that an individual does
Talking Spanish or talking English with an accent
Obvious race or ethnicity
Kavanaugh mentioned affordable suspicion relies on the totality of the circumstances. Within the case earlier than the Supreme Court docket, the circumstances embody the “extraordinarily excessive quantity and proportion” of individuals within the Los Angeles space who’re within the nation illegally and the truth that these individuals usually work in jobs that don’t require paperwork, akin to day labor, landscaping, agriculture and building.
“Underneath this courtroom’s precedents, to not point out widespread sense, these circumstances taken collectively can represent at the very least affordable suspicion of unlawful presence in the USA,” Kavanaugh wrote.
Kavanaugh mentioned affordable suspicion means solely that immigration officers could make a quick cease to inquire about immigration standing, and an individual who’s lawfully in the USA or is a U.S. citizen could be free to go after the “transient encounter.”
The raids within the Los Angeles space started in June, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, joined by Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
“Throughout the raids, groups of armed and masked brokers pulled as much as automotive washes, tow yards, farms and parks and commenced seizing people on sight, usually earlier than asking a single query,” Sotomayor mentioned. “As a substitute of permitting the district courtroom to contemplate these troubling allegations within the regular course, a majority of this courtroom decides to take the once-extraordinary step of staying the district courtroom’s order. That call is yet one more grave misuse of our emergency docket.”
The case is Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo.
Publications with protection embody Politico, SCOTUSblog and the New York Occasions.
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