The Supreme Court on Thursday handed a legal win to the Maryland father who officials have admitted was mistakenly transported to a high-security prison in El Salvador – but the ruling isn’t as clear cut as attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia may have expected.
While the high court’s ruling instructs the Trump administration to “facilitate the release” of Garcia, CNN’s chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid said she was surprised by its complexity, which she admitted left even the network’s seasoned legal team struggling to make sense of it.
“The Supreme Court had several options, and they sort of took this mushy middle road,” Reid said. “Instead of saying that the administration does or does not have to return him to the United States, they are saying that instead the administration has to ‘facilitate his return,’ but does not require the government to return him to the United States.”
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Reid emphasized that the ruling effectively means the Trump administration “has to at least try to bring him back” following his illegal deportation nearly a month ago. But the Supreme Court threw yet another wrench into the timeline with its decision to hand the case back over to the lower court.
“The fact that this case is going back to the lower court, it's unclear that this is going to happen anytime soon, if at all,” Reid said, adding that the justices issued their ruling without a deadline on the administration for when the man’s return would need to be facilitated by.
“So this is somewhat of a surprising decision from the Supreme Court,” Reid concluded. “Mostly because it really lacks clarity on one of the biggest legal questions facing the administration right now.”
