Update - 6:10 PM Eastern:
It appears Judge Murphy has learned his lesson after the Supreme Court's Thursday clarification. Moments ago, he entered the following order in the transferred Massachusetts case:
Judge Brian E. Murphy: ELECTRONIC ORDER entered. This habeas petition was transferred, Phan et al v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security et al, 1:25-cv-02147-RDM, Dkt. 8, from the District Court for the District of Columbia as it was deemed related to D.V.D. et al v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security et al., 1:25-cv-10676-BEM. In D.V.D., the relief sought by Petitioners was initially granted by this Court but later stayed by the Supreme Court of the United States. Dept of Homeland Sec. v. D.V.D., S.Ct., 2025 WL 1732103 (June 23, 2025); Dept of Homeland Sec. v. D. V. D., S.Ct., 2025 WL 1832186 (July 3, 2025) (granting clarification specifically as to these Petitioners). This Court interprets these Supreme Court orders as binding on this new petition, as Petitioners are now raising substantially similar claims, and therefore Petitioners motion is denied.(svm) (Entered: 07/04/2025)
In other words, he's not going to test those waters further. It would appear then that the aliens will be heading out to South Sudan shortly. (Unless, of course, their attorneys can file an emergency appeal with the 1st Circuit and get it to intercede. I wouldn't bank on that.)
Original Story:
As if the case couldn't get any stranger, D.V.D v. DHS — regarding the (attempted) removal of criminal illegal aliens to a third country (here, South Sudan) — hit another record-scratch moment on the Fourth of July. D.C. District Court Judge Randolph Moss issued an administrative stay in a related case (Phan v. DHS), effectively halting the transport of several aliens from Djibouti to South Sudan yet again. He then, after an emergency hearing, transferred the case to the Massachusetts District Court, where Judge Brian Murphy has been presiding over the D.V.D. case.
This comes after the Supreme Court, on Thursday, issued an order clarifying its prior order (which stayed Murphy's preliminary injunction) and let Murphy know that when they said his injunction was stayed, that meant any derivative orders enforcing the injunction were also stayed. The net effect of this was to clear the way for the Trump administration to complete the transfer of the aliens to South Sudan from Djibouti, where they'd been stuck in a holding pattern since May 21.
A federal judge on Friday briefly halted deportations of eight immigrants to war-torn South Sudan, sending the case to another judge, in Boston, the day after the Supreme Court greenlighted their removal.
District Judge Randolph Moss sent the case north from Washington after an extraordinary Fourth of July hearing on Friday afternoon. He concluded that the judge best equipped to deal with the issues was Brian Murphy, the one whose rulings led to the initial halt of the Trump administration’s effort to begin deportations to the eastern African country.
He extended his order halting the deportation until 4:30 p.m. Eastern time, but it was unclear whether Murphy would act on the federal holiday to further limit the removal. Moss said new claims by the immigrants’ lawyers deserved a hearing.
There's a more detailed rundown of the chronology of the case in the article I wrote Thursday regarding the Supreme Court's ruling:
Basically, what happened is that after the Supreme Court ruling, attorneys for the aliens filed a habeas case in D.C., insisting that the effort to deport the men to South Sudan was punitive and unconstitutional. Moss issued an administrative stay and set an emergency hearing on the matter.
Margot Cleveland provided a rundown of the hearing on X:
The entire case is not available but I'm listening in to hearing. 1/ https://t.co/qLYETXhFDL pic.twitter.com/SKBOVNw8wI
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) July 4, 2025
(Note: Where she mentions "Maryland" early on, she means Massachusetts.)
Where things stand at present: Moss has ordered the case transferred to Massachusetts. His administrative stay expired at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. It has now landed there, but the Massachusetts court has not yet taken action. Per DOJ attorneys at the hearing, the flight was scheduled to depart for South Sudan at 7:00 PM this evening (so in about one hour).
Whether the Massachusetts court will attempt to take further action to halt the transfer of the aliens to Djibouti remains to be seen. We'll provide updates as warranted.
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