Justices Kavanaugh And Gorsuch Square Off In Debate Over Detention Terms
In deliberations on Wednesday on the case Nielsen v Preap, The Wall Street Journal reports that justices of the Supreme Court challenged claims by the Justice Department that federal law requires the mandatory detention of certain illegal immigrants that Homeland Security agents arrest years or even decades after their prison sentences have ended.
The highlight of the debate was the contradictory positions taken by President Donald Trump’s appointments to the court, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Gorsuch called for limitations on the government’s power, disagreeing that the government could exercise the authority to detain these immigrants indefinitely without due process of law. Meanwhile, Kavanaugh argued that the spirit of the law was intended harshness toward the perpetrators and as such, the intended acerbity of the law should be honored.
