Supreme Court Allows Trump to Resume Sweeping Immigration Raids in Los Angeles

 Time - The Supreme Court cleared the way for federal agents to resume sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles on Monday, delivering a boost to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort.

The court’s conservative majority overruled a federal judge’s July 11 order that blocked federal agents from stopping or detaining people without “reasonable suspicion” they are in the country illegally.

U.S. District Judge Maame Frimpong had argued that the Trump administration's actions likely violated the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures because they targeted people based on accents, profile, and occupation.

But in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court granted an emergency request from the Justice Department to put a hold on the order, allowing the raids to resume.   

In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that “apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion," but it can be a “'relevant factor' when considered along with other salient factors.”

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.

“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,” Justice Sotomayor wrote in her dissent.

Justice Sotomayor called the decision “another grave misuse of our emergency docket.” 

NPR -  The brief, unsigned order from the Supreme Court didn't give any legal reasoning for the decision, NPR's Adrian Florido tells Up First. In a concurrence, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that demographic realities in LA and factors like race and work sites could be relevant to whether someone is residing in the country illegally. Florido says this emergency ruling is not the final word on the underlying lawsuit challenging racial profiling in ICE arrests. A court hearing is scheduled in LA later this month, and the case could eventually find its way back up to the high court.