The White House took a veiled dig at Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett after she sided with liberals to oppose Donald Trump’s deportation flights to El Salvador.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the 5-4 SCOTUS decision to allow the administration to resume the deportations a “massive legal victory.”

But she added: “Certainly, we wish this was a nine to nothing decision because we firmly believe that the president was well within his constitutional authority

“The Supreme Court made that very clear last night, and they put Judge Boasberg in his place,” she added.

Leavitt didn’t mention Coney Barrett by name, but she made it clear that Trump wasn’t happy with her decision to split with her conservative colleagues on the panel.

“We called on the Supreme Court to rein in these judges who are acting as judicial activists and not real arbiters of the truth and the law, and that’s exactly what we saw the Supreme Court do yesterday,” Leavitt added in another pointed remark about the decision.
Karoline Leavitt took a veiled dig at SCOTUS Judge Amy Coney Barrett.Win McNamee/Getty ImagesShe said the ruling would allow the administration to keep removing “foreign terrorist invaders” using the Alien Enemies Act.

Leavitt called the tight decision a “smackdown” to James Boasberg, the judge who called a halt to the deportation flights amid questions over their legality. Leavitt branded him a “rogue, low-level district court judge who has relentlessly tried to prevent President Trump from using his constitutional powers as head of the executive branch and as commander-in-chief.”

She added that the “highest court in the land” backed the administration and thanked them for “protecting the Constitution.”

Despite Leavitt’s claims of a Supreme Court victory, the ruling came with an important caveat. Any alleged gang members who are detained must be given a chance to seek judicial review before they are deported.