On Thursday, the Supreme Court issued a simple directive to the U.S. government. Or it would have been simple, anyway, if President Donald Trump weren’t engaged in such rampant lawlessness. The high court said the administration should be prepared to say what steps it has taken to bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia—the Maryland man whom the government itself admits was deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in “error.”

The government still hasn’t answered that basic question. On Friday, the administration refused to honor a judicial order—delivered by a lower court in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling—to provide a response to it.

Which offers an occasion to step back and underscore a deeply unsettling absurdity about this repugnant story that’s gotten lost in all the legal minutiae. It’s this: All along, the administration has had the option of moving to return Abrego Garcia to the United States and then trying again to deport him via conventional legal processes—which, ironically enough, could result in his removal anyway, in a more lawful manner.

Why hasn’t the government taken that simple step? That question is the bigger, darker one underlying this whole saga.

In its Thursday ruling, the Supreme Court confirmed that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was “illegal.” Abrego Garcia—who was removed to El Salvador in mid-March—had what’s known as “withholding from removal” status, which an immigration judge granted in 2019. This halted a government effort to deport him to El Salvador at that time, as he’d face grave danger there.

The government has admitted........

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