Contributed by Director Charles Rob Venator-Santiago
In the case of Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo (September 8, 2025), a majority of the Supreme Court temporarily upheld the authority of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain and interrogate Latinos in California based on four criteria. Justice Sotomayor, in her dissenting opinion, noted, “Based on the evidence before it, the court held that the Government was stopping individuals based solely on four factors: (1) their apparent race or ethnicity; (2) whether they spoke Spanish or English with an accent; (3) the type of location where they were found (such as a car wash or bus stop); and (4) the type of job they appeared to do.”
Although this ruling is temporary and subject to appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, it suggests that a majority of the Supreme Court Justices believe that racial profiling of Latinos is constitutional. This opinion indicates that the majority of the Court supports an interpretation of the Fourth Amendment that may allow ICE agents, military personnel, and police officers to detain and interrogate Latinos without probable cause or reasonable suspicion. For a copy of this opinion, see: Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, 606 U.S. __ (2025).
