Who knew that Justice Samuel Alito was such a trusting person?

The ordinarily hard-edged jurist strained to take the Trump administration at its word in his dissent from the Supreme Court’s emergency order at 1 a.m. Saturday morning prohibiting the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelan migrants under the Alien Enemies Act.

Joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, Alito called the seven-justice majority’s order “hastily and prematurely granted.” The court, he wrote, “had no good reason to think that, under the circumstances, issuing an order at midnight was necessary or appropriate.” The Supreme Court had already declared in an earlier decision that Trump could not deport migrants without giving them an opportunity to contest their deportation in court.

Alito evidently thought it unimaginable that the earlier decision would not be obeyed, despite multiple declarations by the administration that it would do whatever it liked. “Both the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law,” he wrote. “The Executive must proceed under the terms of our order ... and this Court should follow established procedures.”

The American Civil Liberties Union had argued in its application that “numerous Venezuelan nationals currently in the government’s custody in the Northern District........

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