The full 5th Circuit dismissed the Alien Enemies Act challenge as moot after the plaintiffs were deported, vacating the panel ruling against Trump and leaving his deportation powers intact.
The full Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed the leading legal challenge to President Donald Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act, erasing a panel ruling that had declared his invocation of the 1798 law unlawful. The en banc court ruled Thursday that the case became moot after all three Venezuelan plaintiffs were removed from the United States under ordinary immigration authorities. The decision leaves the administration's deportation authority intact and pushes the core legal question back toward the Supreme Court.
The New Orleans-based court concluded it no longer had jurisdiction over the dispute in W.M.M. v. Trump because none of the named petitioners remain in the country and the case never featured a certified class. Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote for the court that the government removed all three men under the Immigration and Nationality Act rather than the Alien Enemies Act, making the appeal legally irrelevant. The court also refused a request from the plaintiffs' lawyers to substitute new plaintiffs to keep the case alive.
The dismissal is a significant win for the administration because it vacates the September 2025 panel decision that had rejected Trump's use of the wartime authority. That three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that Tren de Aragua's gang activity did not amount to an invasion or predatory incursion under the statute, a finding the full 17-judge court has now erased from the books.
The Supreme Court had remanded the case to the Fifth Circuit after blocking the administration from removing detainees under the Alien Enemies Act while the fight played out. The high court directed the appeals court to resolve questions about the proclamation's validity and the due process owed to those designated under it. Thursday's ruling sidesteps those questions entirely, setting the stage for the justices to settle the matter in a different case.
The dispute traces back to March 2025, when Trump issued a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act to target suspected Tren de Aragua members as part of his broader crackdown on gang activity tied to the border crisis. The act, last used by President Harry Truman in 1946, allows the president to detain and remove non-naturalized nationals of a hostile power during wartime or an invasion.
Two Trump-appointed judges used concurring opinions to state plainly that the president's use of the law was lawful. Judge James Ho wrote that courts should defer to the president's declaration of an invasion and argued the administration's actions under the Alien Enemies Act and the Due Process Clause should be affirmed. Judge Andrew Oldham joined that view.
Conservative legal observers described the outcome as a net positive for the administration. Advancing American Freedom senior legal fellow Bryce Poole called it one step forward and one step sideways, noting the decision leaves the president's Alien Enemies Act powers intact while the merits question remains live for another day. He pointed to J.A.V. v. Trump, a case with a certified class, as the likely vehicle for a final Supreme Court ruling.
The legal fight is far from finished. The Supreme Court's injunction barring removals under the Alien Enemies Act remains in place, and ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said that protection stays essential because people remain at risk of removal under the wartime authority. Gelernt also noted that courts have repeatedly rejected the use of the law during peacetime.
Even so, the administration's broader immigration agenda continues to move forward. With the adverse panel ruling vacated, no court decision currently stands against the president's invocation of the 1798 statute. Whether the justices take up the question in a future case remains to be seen, but the fight over one of the oldest laws in the American legal toolkit is far from over.
The full 5th Circuit dismissed the Alien Enemies Act challenge as moot after the plaintiffs were deported, vacating the panel ruling against Trump and leaving his deportation powers intact.
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