Overview

• The Court stayed U.S. District Judge Maame E. Frimpong’s July 11 order that barred stops based solely on race, language, location or occupation, clearing the way for operations to continue in Southern California.
• The 9th Circuit had refused to lift the restraining order on Aug. 1, but the Supreme Court’s conservative majority granted the Justice Department’s emergency request.
• Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred that apparent ethnicity cannot alone justify a stop but may be a relevant factor under a totality-of-circumstances test, while Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson dissented.
• Government lawyers defended using a “reasonably broad profile” to establish reasonable suspicion, as plaintiffs alleged racial profiling and documented U.S. citizens being detained in the raids.
• Separate litigation over federal deployments continues, including a Sept. 2 ruling that National Guard and Marine use in Los Angeles violated the Posse Comitatus Act.