June 23, 2023

In an 8-1 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said that the states of Texas and Louisiana lack standing to challenge a September 2021 Department of Homeland Security memorandum revising priorities for the apprehension and removal of certain non-citizens and reversing the previous Administration’s guidance that led to an increase in deportations. In an opinion written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Court reasoned that the president has traditional discretion over whether to take enforcement actions under federal law and that if the Court were to allow the states to bring this lawsuit, it would “open the door to more lawsuits from states that think the executive is not doing enough to enforce the law in other areas such as drug and gun regulation and obstruction of justice laws.” The lone dissent in the case came from Justice Samuel Alito.

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