Supreme Court to decide if US must bring back Maryland man mistakenly sent to El Salvador

WASHINGTON - Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration, will spend another night in a Salvadoran detention center despite a federal judge’s order that he be returned to the United States. 

It's now up to the Supreme Court to decide whether to toss out a Maryland judge's order for Abrego Garcia's return. 

Latest Argument:

In its final plea to the justices Tuesday morning, the DOJ went after the lawyer who argued this case for the government, Erez Reuveni, saying he made inappropriate statements to the court.

They told the court that the administrative stay put in place by the Chief Justice on Monday has been helpful but they want the court to toss out Judge Paula Xinis' order to return Abrego Garcia entirely.

Reuveni told Xinis during a court hearing on Friday that he asked the government why they had not returned Abrego Garcia and had not received a satisfactory answer. Reuveni was placed on leave after Friday's hearing ended with the order for Abrego Garcia's immediate return to the states.

Acting Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court that Reuveni’s statements in court do not reflect the position of the United States government. 

"What we represent, the United States of America, that's our client. That's our only client in all the agencies that fall under the federal government," Attorney General Pam Bondi said. "Any lawyer has an ethical duty to argue on behalf of their client, not against their client. And that's what happened in this case. He has been placed on administrative leave, and we'll see what happens." 

Dig deeper:

Abrego Garcia's lawyers filed a letter with the justices on Tuesday, relying on the High Court’s Monday night decision in the Alien Enemies Act case. 

There, the court said people who are deported under the Alien Enemies Act — a 200-year-old law that gives the president wartime power to detain and deport people from enemy nations — have to be given due process and a chance to argue against deportation before they are removed. 

Abrego Garcia's lawyers say that although that particular act isn't an issue in his case, the court's reasoning "supports Abrego Garcia’s position that the Government violated his due process rights." 

"Indeed, because Abrego Garcia was deprived of any judicial review whatsoever, he had no opportunity to even respond to prove that he is not a member of MS-13," Abrego Garcia’s attorney Andrew Rossman argued. 

What's next:

Now that the government has filed its reply, the emergency request is fully briefed and the justices are on deck to decide at any time.