SCOTUS Scrutinizes DOJ’s ‘Metaphysical’ Immigration Stance (1)

The U.S. Supreme Court weighed a patchwork of laws, decisions, and what Justice Neil Gorsuch called the government’s “metaphysical” position in a dispute over whether courts can review administrative findings involving claims of torture when noncitizens are deported.

The hour-long oral argument session on Monday, which on the whole seemed to favor the Lebanese native and citizen at issue here, was mired in an alphabet soup of statutes, leading Justice Samuel Alito to remark that “all this is very complicated.”

Those complications could make it difficult for the justices to sort out the central issue in the dispute: Whether Nidal ...