Administration officials said they expect the fight over using the wartime act to ultimately head to the Supreme Court.

More than half of the 261 immigrants expelled to El Salvador on Saturday were swept out of the United States using a wartime powers act, a White House official said Sunday, amid questions about whether the Trump administration flouted a judge’s order barring use of the statute to hasten deportations.

"Typically lawyers view orders issued orally by judges as carrying full legal weight," but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt "appeared to point to" that omission Sunday. The White House "did not 'refuse to comply' with a court order,