'Extraordinary': Ex-prosecutor stunned by latest Supreme Court 'rebuke'
The Supreme Court’s instructions for the government to “facilitate the return” of the Maryland father mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvadoran prison last month sent a clear message of disapproval to the Trump administration, according to former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin.
But it also sparked more legal questions than settled answers for the CNN legal analyst, who agreed that the ruling Thursday evening in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia was “a big deal from this Supreme Court.”
“First of all, I think it's just worth pausing to recognize, this was an extraordinary, unanimous rebuke of the Trump administration,” Toobin told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “…From this Supreme Court with six conservatives on it, the fact that they all agreed that the Trump administration should try to facilitate the return of Mr. Garcia to the United States.”
Toobin then launched into a volley of questions, as he first wondered if the ruling’s legal implications would translate into real-world actions.
“The Trump administration has already said Mr. Garcia is in the custody of El Salvador, ‘we have no control over prisons in El Salvador, so we can't get him back,’” he said. That position prompted Cooper to jump in to call it “absurd” while noting the millions of dollars the government paid El Salvador to hold the deportees.
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Toobin added that if U.S. officials wanted Garcia returned to the country, “it seems like this is something that they could facilitate.” He then dropped another set of questions.
“But what remains mysterious about this order is what happens if Mr. Garcia doesn't come back?” Toobin asked. “And how does the court try to enforce something that's entirely in another country, under the control of another government?"
“That's left very much open by this order,” he said.
Toobin lastly pointed out that it would be left to a lower court – not the Supreme Court – to administer the man’s return, but noted that its jurisdiction over El Salvador will be severely limited.
The legal analyst then concluded with one last uncertainty spawned by the ruling: “And the question is how hard will the Trump administration try to get Mr. Garcia back, if at all?