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Supreme Court Case TrackerThe Court, in plain English

Emergency application

Immigration stops and profiling

Kristi Noem, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security v. Pedro Vasquez Perdomo

Granted
No. 25A169Stay applicationFiled by the federal governmentPresented to Justice KaganFrom United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

What did the Court do?

The Court granted the request on September 8, 2025: the lower court's ruling is on hold while the appeal continues.

Emergency rulings are temporary and do not decide the underlying case. Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan, and Justice Jackson would have ruled the other way.

Filed Ruled 32 days after filing

What's being asked

The federal government asks the Supreme Court to pause a July 11 order from a California federal district court. The order limits immigration stops in Los Angeles based on location, job type, spoken Spanish or accented English, or apparent race or ethnicity. The government argues those limits wrongly curb immigration enforcement.

What the Court did

The Court gave the federal government emergency help: it put the district court’s July 11 order on hold (stayed it). The pause lasts through the Ninth Circuit appeal and any timely request for Supreme Court review, but it does not decide the underlying dispute. Justice Sotomayor disagreed with the result (dissented); Justices Kagan and Jackson signed on to her dissent (disagreement).

  • Dissented
  • Wrote separately
  • Vote not published
Dissenting · 3recorded against the Court's order
  1. Sotomayorwrote a dissent
  2. Kaganjoined Sotomayor's writing
  3. Jacksonjoined Sotomayor's writing
Vote not published · 6the order does not say how they voted
  1. Roberts
  2. Thomas
  3. Alito
  4. Gorsuch
  5. Kavanaugh
  6. Barrett
The order records the positions of 3 of 9 justices. The Court usually does not say how each justice voted on an emergency application, so the rest are shown as not published.
Half of 82 rulings on applications where the Court asked for a response came 10 to 26 days after filing, and the median was 17 days; this one was ruled on 32 days after filing.

What it means

The temporary pause does not decide who wins the underlying dispute. The Ninth Circuit appeal continues; no related Supreme Court case is listed, and the application has no argument date.

Separate writings

  • Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Kagan and Justice Jackson, dissenting

    Read (PDF)

Sources

Facts on this page come from the Supreme Court docket, orders, and opinions for No. 25A169. The answers restate that record in plain words; explainer copy is written from the record and the filings only.

Checked October 4, 2026