In a decision that could allow DACA protections to remain in place past the March deadline, the conservative-majority Supreme Court has rejected a request to hear the administration’s challenge to a judge’s ruling – made earlier this year – mandating that the DACA program must remain in place until all litigation is resolved.
Several state attorneys general sued to block President Trump’s September decision to cancel the program. On Jan. 9, San Francisco-based US District Judge William Alsup ruled that DACA must remain in place while the litigation is resolved. A week later, the DOJ said it would ask the Supreme Court to overturn that decision.
“It defies both law and common sense for DACA … to somehow be mandated nationwide by a single district court in San Francisco,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at the time.
As the Hill pointed out, the DOJ’s request was unusual in that it asked the Supreme Court to jump ahead of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in reviewing the case. The nation’s highest court typically will only bypass an appellate court when there’s an emergency involving foreign affairs, a serious separation of powers concerns or when it has already agreed to hear another case dealing with the same question.
JUST IN: Supreme Court declines to hear Trump bid to immediately end program protecting ‘Dreamers’ from deportation pic.twitter.com/zpNDi4rMfn
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) February 26, 2018
The court said the government’s request for the court to hear its case is denied without prejudice, and that the court expects the appeal will swiftly be handled by the Ninth Circuit.
“It is assumed that the court of appeals will proceed expeditiously to decide this case,” the court said.
The justices provided no further explanation for their decision. It takes four justices to agree to hear a case.
The decision is surprising in that Trump recently appointed a conservative justice, Neil Gorsuch, to maintain the court’s conservative majority following the death of Antonin Scalia.
It also begs the question: Has the Supreme Court turned against Trump?
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/2EUsq7W Tyler Durden