Obama has tried to make immigration changes part of his legacy as president, but he hasn’t found common ground in Congress.
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The Obama administration on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the legality of the president’s controversial immigration enforcement plan, which stalled last month when the high court deadlocked on an appeal.
In a filing, the Justice Department asked the court to take a second look at the case once it has a full complement of nine justices.
“Ordinarily, it is exceedingly rare for this Court to grant rehearing”, the petition read.
The court has been shorthanded since Justice Antonin Scalia died in February.
The Justice Department said the lower court’s preliminary injunction would now prevent the government from carrying out the programs nationwide. The 4-4 decision left a lower court’s ruling, blocking the executive amnesty programs, in tact.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia is stepping down early. As I understand it, all of the cases for which SCOTUS split 4-4 are still basically undecided, since without a definitive SCOTUS ruling there’s no governing opinion, and there remains the chance of conflicting opinions from appeals courts.
In a statement, the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) said it was pleased with the Justice Department’s move, saying that extending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and implementing Deferred Action for Parents of Americans would help communities thrive.
The petition was filed as Republicans begin their political convention in Cleveland where the party is expected to nominate Donald Trump, who has called for a wall between the USA and Mexico to prevent undocumented immigrants from entering from that country. Either way, the Court’s denial of the two other petitions for rehearing suggests that this filing seems to be a longshot: with no real prospect of a ninth Justice joining the Court for several months and at least the possibility that the case could come back to the Court after a final judgment, the Justices may opt to steer clear for now.
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“Because we are right on the law, we have prevailed at every stage in this case, and we are confident that we will continue to prevail”, said Marc Rylander, a spokesman for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
