Second Circuit Court of Appeals Rules ICE Mandatory Detention Policy Illegal, Setting Up Likely SCOTUS Showdown

On April 28, 2026, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Trump administration’s mandatory ICE detention policy — denying bond hearings to broad categories of immigration detainees — violates statute and due process protections, paving the way for a likely Supreme Court showdown. The ruling joins a growing federal-circuit consensus against the administration’s detention-without-bond architecture and creates a circuit split with the Fifth Circuit, which on April 25 expanded ICE no-bond detention authority and limited habeas review.

This ruling is a structural inflection in the mortality-frame constitutional litigation converging across at least six federal circuits in 2026. Federal Judge Joseph Goodwin (West Virginia) ordered the release of 65 of 71 habeas petitioners and the WV regional jail authority subsequently suspended ICE intake. Tacoma NWIPC inspections preliminary injunction is on hearing calendar for May 26 (Washington State). The 26 Federal Plaza conditions trial in SDNY before Judge Lewis Kaplan is also May 26. The Broadview Six conspiracy trial in Illinois proceeds the same day. The Second Circuit ruling adds a circuit-court-of-appeals authority to a litigation cluster that is testing whether the federal government can detain people in conditions that produce preventable deaths. See also 2025-08-01–ice-detention-deaths-increase and 2026-04-09–hrw-details-ice-warehouse-detention-abuses.