The Obama administration asked the Supreme Court Monday to reconsider the president’s plan to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation once the court again has nine members.
The court last month said it was split 4 to 4 on whether lower courts were correct when they blocked implementation of President Obama’s plan, which he announced in 2014 after Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Obama’s plan would have shielded those who have been in the country for years without committing serious crimes and have family ties to those here legally.
The request is a long shot, and Acting Solicitor General Ian Heath Gershengorn acknowledged in the filing that it is “exceedingly rare” for the court to grant such a petition.
But the action draws attention to the fact that the Republican Senate has not agreed to a hearing or vote on Judge Merrick Garland, Obama’s nominee to fill the seat of Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February.
The petition said an issue as important as immigration should not be decided by lower courts without definitive Supreme Court review.
But the court itself could have held the case for a rehearing and decided not to.
And as a practical matter, it will be the next president who decides either to endorse or even
expand Obama’s executive action, as Democrat Hillary Clinton has said she will do,
or end it, as Republican Donald Trump has vowed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...-more-top-stories_court-0950pm:homepage/story
The court last month said it was split 4 to 4 on whether lower courts were correct when they blocked implementation of President Obama’s plan, which he announced in 2014 after Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Obama’s plan would have shielded those who have been in the country for years without committing serious crimes and have family ties to those here legally.
The request is a long shot, and Acting Solicitor General Ian Heath Gershengorn acknowledged in the filing that it is “exceedingly rare” for the court to grant such a petition.
But the action draws attention to the fact that the Republican Senate has not agreed to a hearing or vote on Judge Merrick Garland, Obama’s nominee to fill the seat of Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February.
The petition said an issue as important as immigration should not be decided by lower courts without definitive Supreme Court review.
But the court itself could have held the case for a rehearing and decided not to.
And as a practical matter, it will be the next president who decides either to endorse or even
expand Obama’s executive action, as Democrat Hillary Clinton has said she will do,
or end it, as Republican Donald Trump has vowed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...-more-top-stories_court-0950pm:homepage/story