The Supreme Court on Friday threw out a GOP-led challenge to one of the Biden administration’s key immigration policies.
The decision is a victory for the Biden administration on immigration and may suggest that Republicans won’t be able to block other policies as easily.
In 2021, the Biden administration announced that, rather than trying to deport everyone who had entered the United States illegally, it would give priority to those who were suspected of terrorism or violent crime.
- Louisiana and Texas sued, claiming the new policy would lead to insufficient arrests.
- Friday, the court stated that the states lacked standing to file that lawsuit.
The choice appears to flag a cutoff to how imaginative states can get while attempting to impede government strategies — and red states have been getting genuinely inventive of late in a portion of their endeavors to accomplish strategic goals through the courts.
You must demonstrate that you have been harmed due to a federal policy to challenge it in court. Texas claimed that Biden’s immigration enforcement decisions had hurt the state because it would have to pay for services for people who were not deported.
- In an 8-1 decision, the court stated that this is not enough harm to prevent the federal government from exercising its authority, at least in this manner.
- Red states have made similar arguments in a number of other instances, such as challenges to President Biden’s plan to forgive student debt.
The court has long deferred to the executive branch regarding immigration, as demonstrated by its decision to allow then-President Trump’s travel ban to remain in effect. However, Friday’s ruling does not guarantee that those suits will also fail.
However, the immigration case serves as a partial rebuke to lower courts accepting weaker standing arguments. Conservative judges dominate these lower courts.
In the majority opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote, “The States have brought an extraordinarily unusual lawsuit.” They want a federal court to order the Executive Branch to alter its arrest policies so as to make more arrests. Federal courts have not traditionally entertained that kind of lawsuit.”
