Feathers on the leftists and the media, as they are so often prone to, are getting ruffled once again by the Trump administration. The latest reason for their plumage becoming unkempt is a step taken by the Department of Justice to employ a previously unused immigration court for a case. You see many of the expected characters getting upset by this, with a very distinguishing feature:
They have no idea what they are upset about.
This concerns the DOJ turning to the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, and you are forgiven if you know little to nothing about it. This was a court established some 30 years ago by Congress, but that had, up to this point, gone unutilized. The purpose of it is to shield any classified information exposed in the course of a trial from being made public in trial records. Therefore, the entire proceedings in said courtroom are kept secret. This bothers certain sectors of our nation.
CNN details some of the characteristics of this fresh-from-the-box court, and you can detect the essence of disapproval from the report.
The court gives the government enormous latitude to keep secret – including from the person it is trying to deport – its reasons for believing an immigrant is a terrorist. And it closes off many of the avenues migrants typically have for contesting their removals.
It also closes off the media from gleaning the details of the case, yet they still are sounding pestered that this is taking place. Look just at the headline from CNN, and we get a sense of their dyspeptic attitude: “This Court Was Created 30 Years Ago and Never Heard a Case. Trump Wants To Change That.” Ward covered the initial filing and some of the complaints heard immediately after, such as Politico claiming that legal scholars challenge the use of this court—scholars who go unnamed and unattributed, mind you.
SEE: Trump Admin Now Pushing Fast-Track Deportations via Alien Terrorist Court
This is not an unfamiliar approach seen in the press during the Trump years: Complaints have been made about employing laws or enforcing policies that are outdated or rarely used. The president was scorched when he promised to invoke the Insurrection Act to justify sending the National Guard into D.C. to tamp down crime. Canadian tariff battles in the early part of his second term were rooted in the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, an “old” trading policy from the 1930s. These were sold in the press as invalid employment of laws because they were dusty standards no one uses today. This argument derived from an inability to demonstrate they were illegally applied.
And now the struggle is greater, given the ATRC is relatively new, and so the approach is, “Well, no one ever used it before!” Yeah…and so…??? It is still valid. Trump is simply the first president to remove the shrink wrap. This effort therefore needs to be denigrated in other fashions, such as referring to the ATRC as “a zombie court.” (Hint for Mother Jones: You cannot “revive” something never previously used.)
But what brings more amusement to the table is how the DOJ may have become inspired to turn to this option that still has that New Court Smell. In March of 2025, during a contentious hearing with DOJ representatives, Judge James Boasberg, who has become a repeated and infamous blockade against the administration’s immigration efforts, actually broached the idea of using the ATRC, in possibly a dismissive fashion.
Boasberg asked the government what the role of the court was in ensuring that people aren't improperly deported to Salvadoran prisons. He also raised the Alien Terrorist Removal Court as an avenue for the Justice Department to remove aliens who are suspected of terrorism. It was established by Congress in 1996, but it has never been used to deport a suspected alien terrorist.
It seems Boasberg might have been provocative in that exchange. Given he knew that he was steering the DOJ lawyers towards a never-used court option, you get the sense he was sending the administration down a legal cul-de-sac. But now they have turned his misdirection into leverage and activated this never-before-used option.
READ MORE: Breaking: Judge Boasberg Rules on Trump Admin's Motion to Vacate Order Blocking TdA Deportations
Judge Threatens to Hold Trump DOJ in Contempt in Latest Order on Deportation Flights
It remains to be seen how effective this court option can become. The judges tasked with the ATRC are given more latitude, as they have to rule over arguments and evidence not entirely revealed and even kept from the defense. There are also many implications of due process possibly being violated and becoming a matter for the Supreme Court to rule over.
It is for this reason that it is suspected that those legal hurdles have prevented the use of this court previously. But there is a wry reality that the administration was inspired to turn to this option by the very judge who has mostly seemed intent on ruling against them.
And now we sit back and watch with amusement as the expected groups and journalists come out barking about the case being brought – a case they have no way of knowing the particulars of and therefore are entirely unclear what it is they are upset about.
Editor's Note: Unelected federal judges are hijacking President Trump's agenda and insulting the will of the people.
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