A federal judge denied a last-ditch bid for legal protection from eight men seeking to stave off deportation to South Sudan, saying the Supreme Court had given the final word on the matter two days earlier.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy denied an emergency motion by the men to prevent the deportations to the war-torn African nation scheduled for later Friday evening. They are currently housed in a shipping container on a U.S. military base in Djibouti.
Murphy’s decision came after a frenzied day in court by attorneys for the eight men, who initially filed an emergency petition in Washington, D.C., before a federal judge there sent the case back to Massachusetts. The July 4 drama came a day after the Supreme Court lifted an order by Murphy that had blocked the deportation.
“This Court interprets these Supreme Court orders as binding on this new petition,” Murphy said in a brief order, “as Petitioners are now raising substantially similar claims, and therefore Petitioners motion is denied.”
The order came just hours after Washington, D.C.-based U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss concluded — following a pair of hearings held by video conference on the July Fourth holiday — that he had to punt the case to back to Murphy. Moss seemed unsure whether it was proper for him to intercede on behalf of the eight men, given the case’s long history in Massachusetts and the recent Supreme Court decisions.