A federal judge in Washington tried to freeze deportation flights while planes were already in the air last spring.
Seventeen months, a Supreme Court remand, and a scrapped panel ruling later, the whole legal fight just vanished into thin air.
The Fifth Circuit didn't rule on Trump's power at all – it just erased the case for lack of anyone left to fight it.
Three Deported Men Left Judges With Nothing to Rule On
Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act in March 2025 to target Tren de Aragua gang members from Venezuela.
Judge James Boasberg in D.C. tried to block the removals with a temporary restraining order almost immediately.
The Supreme Court stepped in that April and ruled detainees had to challenge removal through habeas petitions in the district where they were actually held.
That sent the fight to the Northern District of Texas, and eventually up to the Fifth Circuit under the case name W.M.M. v. Trump.
A three-judge panel ruled against the administration 2-1 last September, with Judge Andrew Oldham dissenting.
Weeks later the full Fifth Circuit wiped that panel ruling off the books and agreed to rehear the case en banc.
By the time judges heard arguments the following January, the government had a bombshell waiting for them.
All three named plaintiffs had already been deported under regular immigration law, not the Alien Enemies Act at all.
En Banc Court Says There Is Nothing Left to Fight Over
Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote for the en banc court that enjoining removal under the Alien Enemies Act "would not prevent their removal" because it had already happened.
That single fact gutted the entire case.
The court dismissed for lack of jurisdiction on August 13, 2026, finding the appeal moot.
No ruling on whether Trump's invocation of the Act was lawful.
Just a case that dissolved because the men challenging their removal weren't around to challenge it anymore.
Judge James Ho wrote separately to hammer the real point everyone should take from this.
"Determining the existence of a state of invasion is a quintessentially executive prerogative – not a judicial one," Ho wrote.
The court also turned back a last-ditch effort to keep the lawsuit alive by swapping in five new plaintiffs.
One proposed replacement had asylum status and another had Temporary Protected Status, statuses the original three men never held.
Judges punted that fight to the district court instead of settling it themselves.
What Judges Erasing a Bad Ruling Actually Means
Democrat-appointed district judges spent a year and a half treating a wartime immigration law like it needed their personal permission slip.
Boasberg tried to order planes turned around mid-flight.
A Fifth Circuit panel tried to rule the administration hadn't proven an "invasion" existed at all, as if three unelected judges get to override a president's national security judgment.
None of that survives now.
The en banc court's mootness ruling leaves Judge Ho's deference-to-the-executive language as the most recent word out of the full Fifth Circuit.
That's not nothing – it's a marker for every future Alien Enemies Act fight in the circuit, even though a separate opinion isn't binding precedent.
Other AEA lawsuits are still working through courts around the country, and several district judges have already sided against the administration.
But the strategy the government used here – process removals fast and let the underlying claims go moot – just got a real-world test run, and it worked.
Expect DOJ lawyers to keep using it.
Sources:
- Josh Blackman, "En Banc Fifth Circuit Dismisses Alien Enemies Act Case as Moot," Reason (Volokh Conspiracy), August 13, 2026.
- "Mootness Dooms Challenge to Trump's Alien Enemies Act Deportations," Courthouse News Service, August 13, 2026.
- "5th Circuit Dismisses Alien Enemies Act Challenge as Moot After Plaintiffs Are Deported," yourNEWS, August 14, 2026.
- "BREAKING: Appeals Court Hands President Trump Huge Win in Alien Enemies Act Case," WLT Report, August 13, 2026.
- Ariane de Vogue, "Supreme Court Ruling on Alien Enemies Act Raises New Due Process Concerns for Migrants," CNN Politics, April 8, 2025.
- smoosieq, "After All That, 5th Circuit's Trump Alien Enemies Act Case Goes Poof," RedState, August 13, 2026.