The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear the Trump administration’s appeal in a case over whether immigrants detained while they contest deportation are entitled to bond hearings. The case, Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha, No. 26-104, appears in the certiorari granted section of the court’s Oct. 1 order list. The court’s docket shows that the government filed its petition July 23 and that the case was distributed for the justices’ Sept. 28 conference. The entry for Oct. 1 reads “Petition GRANTED.”
The government is appealing a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit issued April 28, according to the docket. The petitioner, Philip L. Rhoney, is acting director of ICE’s Buffalo Field Office. The respondent, Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, is a Brazilian national who entered the United States without inspection more than two decades ago, applied for asylum in 2016 and was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in September 2025, Fox News (opens in new tab) reported. According to Fox News (opens in new tab), a federal district court and the 2nd Circuit both held that he was entitled to a bond hearing, and an immigration judge later found he was neither a flight risk nor a danger and released him on bond.
The courts of appeals have split on the policy. Appeals judges in nine of the 11 federal circuits have concluded that holding immigrants without bond hearings violates federal law, while the 5th and 8th Circuits have sided with the administration, the Associated Press reported. Politico (opens in new tab) reported that lower courts have rejected the policy more than 20,000 times.
The administration argues that the policy is lawful under a 1996 immigration law and that the split among the circuits is “disrupting the orderly administration of immigration law,” according to the AP. “The result is an unworkable patchwork of inconsistent immigration enforcement, where aliens present without admission are subject to mandatory detention in some circuits but are entitled to bond hearings and often released in others,” the government wrote, as quoted by the AP.
Lawyers for Barbosa da Cunha are with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, according to the docket. They say the administration is trying to deny bond hearings to immigrants arrested anywhere in the U.S., no matter how long they have lived there, rather than only to those stopped at the border, the AP reported. “Millions of noncitizens could be affected by the government's new interpretation,” the ACLU attorneys wrote, according to the AP. According to the AP, the policy departs from the practice of earlier administrations, which typically allowed most noncitizens without criminal records who were arrested away from the border to request a bond hearing.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer is counsel of record for the government, according to the docket. Fox News (opens in new tab) reported that oral arguments are expected later this term, and Politico (opens in new tab) noted that the term opens Monday. Fox News (opens in new tab) also reported that the issue returns to the court after a pardon by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appeared to derail an earlier attempt by the administration to settle it. The Washington Post (opens in new tab) described the policy as a novel one that denies bond hearings.