'I wouldn't pop the champagne': Trump aide's brag of 'colossal' win cut down by expert

The Supreme Court permitted President Donald Trump this week to resume mass migrant deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a ruling that had many of Trump's legal critics fuming and Trump's team proclaiming victory — but it wasn't quite that cut and dry, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig explained during a CNN panel on Tuesday.

"This is a victory for the Trump administration, one of the more significant ones they have netted before the high court," said legal reporter Paula Reid. "But it's a partial victory because they will be expected to follow process, small-p."

"So you say it's a victory, but a partial victory. That's not how Trump aide Stephen Miller sees it," said anchor Jake Tapper. "Take a listen to him on Fox last night."

"This is a monumental, colossal victory for the rule of law, for the Constitution," Miller said in the clip. "This was a huge, I mean, a monumental victory for President Trump. The biggest legal win of this administration so far."

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But Tapper questioned the magnitude of the court win.

"Again, we all agree that it's a victory, but is it a monumental, colossal victory?" asked Tapper, turning to Honig.

"I wouldn't pop the champagne quite like that," said Honig. "So it is a victory in that the Trump administration can continue with the process of these deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. However, what all nine justices agreed on is you have to give some due process. In fact, what the ruling really says is the way you ship these people out to [El Salvador] was wrong ... the Supreme Court said that was wrong, that was illegal, and you're not allowed to do it that way."

"Moving forward, you have to give them some due process. Not a lot, but some due process," Honig continued. "And importantly, you have to give these people reasonable advance notice. You can't just whisk them away. Now what is reasonable, I think, is going to become the next issue. But you have to give them some reasonable opportunity to get a lawyer and to challenge this. So it's a win. You can put it in the W column. But that is a vast overstatement."

"Yes, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Miller might have different interpretations of the word 'reasonable,'" concurred Tapper.

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