The respondents had been detained under section 1231(a)(6) while they sought withholding of removal after their earlier removal orders were reinstated. In two class actions, district courts in California and Washington ordered bond hearings for the class members after six months of detention; the Northern District of California “enjoined [the Government] from detaining [respondents] and the class members pursuant to section 1231(a)(6) for more than 180 days without providing each a bond hearing.” The Ninth Circuit affirmed both. The Supreme Court reversed on a threshold question. It held that section 1252(f)(1) “generally prohibits lower courts from entering injunctions that order federal officials to take or to refrain from taking actions to enforce, implement, or otherwise carry out the specified statutory provisions,” with one exception: lower courts retain authority to “enjoin or restrain the operation of” those provisions “with respect to the application of such provisions to an individual alien against whom proceedings under such part have been initiated.” The Court concluded: “It is sufficient to hold that the classwide injunctive relief awarded in these cases was unlawful.” The opinion refers to the companion case decided the same day, Johnson v. Arteaga-Martinez, for the detention authority under section 1231(a)(6).
Caution The Court decided only the availability of class-wide injunctive relief. It did not decide whether people detained under section 1231(a)(6) are entitled to bond hearings, and it left individual relief untouched by its own terms. The Court also said it had no occasion to decide whether section 1252(f)(1) reaches declaratory relief. The text read is the slip opinion, which is subject to formal revision.
Section 1252(f)(1) Class relief Bond hearing Prolonged detention (Zadvydas) Withholding-only proceedings Reinstated removal orders Detention pending removal
The court's own text
Public copy Copy held by the Coalition
Read in full from the text of the slip opinion, which is identical to the Supreme Court's own file.
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