The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way on Monday for President Donald Trump’s administration to resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own without offering them a chance to show the harms they could face, handing him another victory in his aggressive pursuit of mass deportations.

In an action that prompted a sharp dissent from its three liberal justices, the court granted the administration’s request to lift a judicial order requiring that migrants set for deportation to so-called “third countries” get a “meaningful opportunity” to tell U.S. officials they are at risk of torture at their new destination, while a legal challenge plays out.

Boston-based U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy had issued the order on April 18.

The Supreme Court’s brief order was unsigned and offered no reasoning, as is common when it decides emergency requests. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by the two other liberal justices, called the decision a “gross abuse” of the court’s power.

“Apparently, the court finds the idea that thousands will suffer violence in far-flung locales more palatable than the remote possibility that a district court exceeded its remedial powers when it ordered the government to provide notice and process to which the plaintiffs are constitutionally and statutorily entitled,” Sotomayor wrote.

Sotomayor called the court’s action “as incomprehensible as it is inexcusable.”

Murphy had found that the administration’s policy of “executing third-country removals without providing notice and a meaningful opportunity to present fear-based claims” likely violates the U.S. Constitution’s due process protections. Due process generally requires the government to provide notice and an opportunity for a hearing before taking certain adverse actions.

After the Department of Homeland Security moved in February to step up rapid deportations to third countries, immigrant rights groups filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of a group of migrants seeking to prevent their removal to such places without notice and to gain chance to assert the harms they could face.

Murphy on May 21 found the Trump administration violated his order requiring additional steps before attempting to send a group of migrants to politically unstable South Sudan, which the U.S. State Department has urged Americans to avoid “due to crime, kidnapping and armed conflict.”

The judge’s intervention prompted the U.S. government to keep the migrants at a military base in Djibouti.

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Murphy in a court order made clear that his decision preventing the rapid deportation of eight men to South Sudan “remains in full force and effect.”

Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, which helps represent the plaintiffs, called the ramifications of the court’s action “horrifying,” stripping away “critical due process protections that have been protecting our class members from torture and death.”

The administration told the Supreme Court that its third-country policy already complied with due process and is critical for removing migrants who commit crimes because their countries of origin are often unwilling to take them back. It said that all the South Sudan-destined migrants had committed “heinous crimes” in the United States including murder, arson and armed robbery.

“The Supreme Court’s stay of a left-wing district judge’s injunction reaffirms the president’s authority to remove criminal illegal aliens from our country and Make America Safe Again,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said after Monday’s decision.

“Fire up the deportation planes,” said Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

A FLOOD OF CASES

The dispute is one of many legal challenges to Trump policies to have reached the nation’s highest judicial body since he returned to office in January.

The Supreme Court in May let Trump end humanitarian programs for hundreds of thousands of migrants to live and work in the United States temporarily. The justices, however, faulted the administration’s treatment of some migrants whom Trump targeted for removal under the Alien Enemies Act – a 1798 law that historically has been employed only in wartime – as inadequate under constitutional due process protections.

Sotomayor said that in sending migrants to South Sudan, and in another instance four others to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and on to El Salvador, the administration “openly flouted two court orders” issued by Murphy. Sotomayor also pointed to the separate Alien Enemies Act litigation in which questions were raised about the administration’s compliance with an order issued by a judge in that case.

“This is not the first time the court closes its eyes to noncompliance, nor, I fear, will it be the last,” Sotomayor wrote. “Yet each time this court rewards noncompliance with discretionary relief, it further erodes respect for courts and for the rule of law.”

The administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene after the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 16 declined to put Murphy’s decision on hold.
Reuters has also reported that U.S. officials had been considering sending migrants to Libya, another politically unstable country, despite previous U.S. condemnation of Libya’s harsh treatment of detainees. — Reuters

WASHINGTON – U.S. business activity slowed marginally in June, though prices increased further amid President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs on imported goods, suggesting that an acceleration in inflation was likely in the second half of the year.

The anticipated rise in inflation has resulted in the Federal Reserve pausing its interest rate cutting cycle, putting pressure on the housing market. The existing home sales pace in May was the lowest for the month since 2009 as higher mortgage rates sidelined potential buyers, other data showed on Monday.

The risks of higher inflation and tepid economic growth or stagflation have risen amid the uncertainty caused by the constantly shifting tariffs policy. An escalation in tensions in the Middle East after the United States joined in the conflict between Israel and Iran with air strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities has added another layer of uncertainty.

“With tariff-induced price hikes already set to squeeze household spending power, higher gasoline prices would intensify the strain on consumer pockets, risking a more pronounced slowdown in the economy,” said James Knightley, chief international economist at ING.

S&P Global said its flash U.S. Composite PMI Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors, slipped to 52.8 this month from 53.0 in May. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the private sector.

The survey’s flash manufacturing PMI was unchanged at 52.0. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the manufacturing PMI easing to 51.0. S&P Global noted a slight rise in optimism among manufacturers “in part reflecting hopes of greater benefits from trade protectionism.”

It, however, added that “companies generally remained less upbeat than prior to the inauguration of President Trump.” Its flash services PMI dipped to 53.1 from 53.7 in May. Economists had forecast the services PMI falling to 53.0.

At face value, the PMIs suggested the economy continued to expand at a moderate pace at the end of the second quarter.

But so-called hard data on retail sales, homebuilding and the labor market have painted a picture of an economy that was softening because of tariffs.

That was reinforced by a separate report from the National Association of Realtors showing existing home sales increased 0.8% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.03 million units. Despite the rise, the sales pace was the slowest for any May since 2009 when the economy was at the tail end of the Great Recession, triggered by the bursting of the housing bubble.

Sales dropped 0.7% on a year-over-year basis in May. Other metrics were consistent with tepid demand. The 4.6 months supply of houses on the market was the highest in nearly nine years and a 1.3% price rise from a year ago was the smallest since 2023.

“Softer housing sector activity should be an early sign that underlying demand is weakening this year,” said Veronica Clark, an economist at Citigroup.

SLOWING ORDER GROWTH

The S&P Global survey’s measure of new orders received by businesses declined to 52.3 this month from 53.0 in May.

A measure of prices paid by businesses for inputs fell to 61.6 from 63.2 last month. But manufacturers faced higher input costs, with this price gauge jumping to 70.0. That was the highest reading since July 2022 and followed 64.6 in May.

Prices paid for inputs by services businesses remained elevated, with tariffs, higher financing, wage and fuel costs cited. The pace of increase, however, slowed amid competition.

Nearly two-thirds of manufacturers reporting higher input costs attributed these to tariffs while just over half of respondents linked increased selling prices to tariffs, S&P Global said.

That supports economists’ expectations that inflation would surge from June following mostly benign consumer and producer price readings in recent months. Economists have argued that inflation has been slow to respond to Trump’s sweeping import duties because businesses were still selling stock accumulated before the tariffs came into effect.

The survey’s measure of prices charged by businesses for goods and services remained at lofty levels as manufacturers passed on the increased costs from tariffs to consumers. The prices charged gauge for manufacturers shot up to 64.5, the highest since July 2022, from 59.7 in May.

The strife in the Middle East could also help to fan inflation. Goldman Sachs has estimated Brent crude oil peaking at $110 per barrel if flows through the Strait of Hormuz were halved for a month and remained down by 10% for the next 11 months. Oil prices briefly touched a five-month high on Monday before erasing most gains as oil and gas transit continued on tankers from the Middle East.

Stocks on Wall Street were trading higher after Fed vice-chair Michelle Bowman said the central bank could resume rate cuts as soon as July. The dollar slipped against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury yields declined.

The Fed last week kept the U.S. central bank’s benchmark overnight interest rate in the 4.25%-4.50% range, where it had been since December. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters he expected “meaningful” inflation ahead.

S&P Global’s employment picked up this month, mostly driven by manufacturing, where some factories are experiencing order backlogs. But some economists were skeptical of the improvement, noting the recent rise in the number of people collecting unemployment checks.

“The employment index has been a poor guide to payroll growth lately, raising questions about its accuracy,” said Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. “Other surveys … all suggest that businesses are slowing employment growth.” — Reuters