Bad news for the Trump Administration this Monday morning.
The Supreme Court has rejected a petition from the Trump Administration asking the high court to fast-track its decision on the President ending the deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) program implemented by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
Just last month, the Court agreed to hear the Administration’s petition on whether or not the issue could be resolved before the White House’s self-imposed deadline.
Trump’s ending of DACA has been overruled by a federal appeals court in California. The Supreme Court has left that ruling in place for now with its rejection to weigh in on the matter.
That means DACA remains in place for the time being, despite the program’s expiration deadline.
USA Today reports:
The denial leaves in place the popular DACA program, which has protected some 690,000 undocumented immigrants from deportation and enabled them to get work permits.
The program had faced a March 5 deadline for congressional action set by Trump last summer. Two federal courts have ruled the administration’s action was illegal.
The justices could have agreed to hear the case this spring, leapfrogging a federal appeals court based in California that has been sympathetic to the cause of immigrants. They also could have overruled federal District Judge William Alsup without a hearing.
SCOTUS news: Court won’t hear case to end DACA as Trump wants. That means renewals will continue for now – and the March 5 deadline essentially goes away
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 26, 2018
The Supreme Court reserves the right to determine its own schedule. But this creates a legal pretzel: DACA, to begin with, is unconstitutional. The executive branch can’t dictate immigration policy unilaterally, which is what Obama’s program did by providing deportation relief for minors brought here illegally. Trump was right in ending the unconstitutional program and forcing Congress to act on the issue. Unfortunately, Congress has yet to address the matter, and the Supreme Court just left an unconstitutional program in place.
What do you think of SCOTUS’s decision here? Was it right for the Court to reject the petition? Tell us your thoughts below, and share this story over Facebook now!
