WASHINGTON (Michigan News Source) – After a temporary halt on the expiration of Title 42 by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court has decided in a 5 – 4 vote to maintain the 2020 policy for the immediate future.
The policy was set to expire just ahead of Christmas, but 19 states across the south, south west, and Midwest sought a judicial review from the Supreme Court arguing that by letting Title 42 expire, movement across the border would increase “from 7,000 per day in illegal crossings to as much as 15,000 per day.”
“This stay itself does not prevent the federal government from taking any action with respect to that policy,” the Supreme Court said, “The Court’s review on certiorari is limited to the question of intervention. While the underlying merits of the District Court’s summary judgment order are pertinent to that analysis, the Court does not grant review of those merits, which have not yet been addressed by the Court of Appeals.”
Justices John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett voted in favor keeping Title 42 in place, while Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kaga, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Neil Gorsuch voted against granting the request.
Justice Gorsuch wrote in a dissenting opinion how the “stay would effectively require the federal government to continue enforcing the Title 42 orders indefinitely,” he said. “Even if at the end of it all we find that the States are permitted to intervene, and even if the States manage on remand to demonstrate that the Title 42 orders were lawfully adopted, the emergency on which those orders were premised has long since lapsed.”
The states petitioning for the policy to remain have repeatedly stated that without it, immigrants crossings would spike and likely cause “irreparable harm to the States,” but in his dissenting opinion while not disagreeing with the States’ concerns, Gorsuch does not believe the border crisis has to do with the origins of the Title 42 policy.
“But the current border crisis is not a COVID crisis,” he said, “And courts should not be in the business of perpetuating administrative edicts designed for one emergency only because elected officials have failed to address a different emergency. We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort.”
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The White House released a statement shortly thereafter acknowledging its decision to comply with the court’s order.
“We will, of course, comply with the order and prepare for the Court’s review,” a White House statement said, “At the same time, we are advancing our preparations to manage the border in a secure, orderly, and human way when Title 42 eventually lifts and will continue expanding legal pathways for immigration.”
The High Court also decided to begin hearing arguments beginning in February 2023.
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