Everton defender James Tarkowski received online threats after his reckless challenge on Liverpool's Alexis Mac Allister in the Merseyside derby this week, his club said Friday.
Everton condemned the abuse, which came after Tarkowski's high challenge in the team's 1-0 loss at Anfield.
“Everton Football Club is aware of threats made towards James Tarkowski and his family on social media. Such behavior is completely unacceptable and has no place in football or society,” the club said in a statement.
Tarkowski was shown a yellow card for his studs-up tackle that left Mac Allister writhing in pain. The league later acknowledged he should have been given a red.
Tarkowski's wife Samantha hit out at the reaction from people on social media.
“The level of abuse my husband is receiving - wishing death on him, vile comments about me, about us as a couple, and about him as a person-is beyond disgusting,” she wrote on Instagram. “People forget that he is more than just a footballer. He is a husband, a son, a brother, a friend, and most importantly, the father of our two children.”
Tarkowski was booked after 11 minutes of the derby when, despite winning the ball, a heavy follow through saw him catch Mac Allister high on his left calf to send the Argentina international spinning on the field.
“For those acting like he deliberately set out to hurt someone- ru serious!? Football moves at speed, and tackles are split second decisions,” Tarkowski's wife said. “No player goes out there to injure someone and do you think any player would feel good about it if they did?”
Everton manager David Moyes said he accepted the challenge was worthy of a red card, but was also critical the abuse directed at Tarkowski.
“It's not acceptable for anybody in any walk of life, but we have to hold our hand up and say after looking at it again I believe that could have been a sending off, but I don’t think that means that you get abused online because of that,” he said. “It's part of football. He made what looked at the time, I thought, a really good tackle, but in looking at it again I think that was a bit reckless.”
James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
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Everton's James Tarkowski, left, fouls Liverpool's Alexis Mac Allister during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Everton at Anfield in Liverpool, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)
Everton's James Tarkowski takes off his shirt to give to supporters after the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Everton at Anfield in Liverpool, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)
Everton's James Tarkowski, left, right Liverpool's Alexis Mac Allister during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Everton at Anfield, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Liverpool, England. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to use an 18th century wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants, but said they must get a court hearing before they are taken from the United States.
In a bitterly divided decision, the court said the administration must give Venezuelans who it claims are gang members “reasonable time” to go to court.
But the conservative majority said the legal challenges must take place in Texas, instead of a Washington courtroom.
The court’s action appears to bar the administration from immediately resuming the flights that last month carried hundreds of migrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The flights came soon after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II to justify the deportations under a presidential proclamation calling the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force.
The majority said nothing about those flights, which took off without providing the hearing the justices now say is necessary.
In dissent, the three liberal justices said the administration has sought to avoid judicial review in this case and the court “now rewards the government for its behavior.” Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined portions of the dissent.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor said it would be harder for people to challenge deportations individually, wherever they are being held, and noted that the administration has also said in another case before the court that it’s unable to return people who have been deported to the El Salvador prison by mistake.
“We, as a Nation and a court of law, should be better than this,” she wrote.
The justices acted on the administration’s emergency appeal after the federal appeals court in Washington left in place an order temporarily prohibiting deportations of the migrants accused of being gang members under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act.
“For all the rhetoric of the dissents,” the court wrote in an unsigned opinion, the high court order confirms “that the detainees subject to removal orders under the AEA are entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal."
The case has become a flashpoint amid escalating tension between the White House and the federal courts. It's the second time in less than a week that a majority of conservative justices has handed Trump at least a partial victory in an emergency appeal after lower courts had blocked parts of his agenda.
Several other cases are pending, including over Trump's plan to deny citizenship to U.S.-born children of parents who are in the country illegally.
Trump praised the court for its action Monday.
"The Supreme Court has upheld the Rule of Law in our Nation by allowing a President, whoever that may be, to be able to secure our Borders, and protect our families and our Country, itself. A GREAT DAY FOR JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.
The original order blocking the deportations to El Salvador was issued by U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, the chief judge at the federal courthouse in Washington.
Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of five Venezuelan noncitizens who were being held in Texas, hours after the proclamation was made public and as immigration authorities were shepherding hundreds of migrants to waiting airplanes.
ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said the “critical point" of the high court’s ruling was that people must be allowed due process to challenge their removal. "That is an important victory,” he said.
Boasberg imposed a temporary halt on deportations and also ordered planeloads of Venezuelan immigrants to return to the U.S. That did not happen. The judge held a hearing last week over whether the government defied his order to turn the planes around. The administration has invoked a “ state secrets privilege ” and refused to give Boasberg any additional information about the deportations.
Trump and his allies have called for impeaching Boasberg. In a rare statement, Chief Justice John Roberts said “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.
Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States peer through windows of an Eastern Airlines plane upon arriving at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
