After Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, the ACLU sued to stop the deportations, which were already in the process of happening on Saturday. Planes were in the air, and based on the publicly available information, at least some of the people being flown to El Salvador had not been handed over to that country yet when the judge issued his ruling.

Perkins Coie's lawsuit is in response to President Trump's executive order that accused the firm of "dishonest and dangerous activity" that sought to overturn laws and elections and of allegedly discriminatory DEI policies.