Supreme Court allows Texas to implement major immigration law – Washington Examiner

The Supreme Court has allowed Texas to implement a law that allows state police to arrest immigrants on state, not federal, charges if they illegally enter the United States from Mexico.

The high court’s 6-3 decision comes just one day after the high court ruled to continue a temporary hold that was initially issued on March 4. Justice Samuel Alito, who covers matters stemming from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, led the order.

Associate Justice Samuel Alito joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a group portrait on Oct. 7, 2022, at the Supreme Court building in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

The legal fight will return to a three-judge panel on the 5th Circuit on April 3, which is hearing Texas’s appeal on the merits. The losing party could then appeal the case back to the Supreme Court after that panel reaches a decision.

Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh issued a concurrence in denial of applications to vacate the lower court’s stay, explaining that the 5th Circuit’s prior decisions “puts this case in a very unusual procedural posture.”

The appeals court “has not entered a stay pending appeal. Instead, in an exercise of its docket-
management authority, it issued a temporary administrative stay and deferred the stay motion to a merits panel, which is considering it in conjunction with Texas’s challenge to the District Court’s injunction of S. B. 4. Thus, the Fifth Circuit has not yet rendered a decision on whether a stay pending appeal is warranted,” they wrote.

Senate Bill 4 was signed into law in December 2023 and allows state police to arrest people on immigration charges, an authority that until now was reserved for federal law enforcement because immigration violations are dictated by federal law, not state law.

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It also allows local judges to order someone in custody to be deported outside the U.S.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor penned a dissent that said the majority’s decision to “green light” the law will “upend the longstanding federal-state balance of power and sow chaos, when the only court to consider the law concluded that it is likely unconstitutional.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.