Senate Republicans are moving to file an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case challenging President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, according to a Monday report from Politico.
A strong majority of Senate Republicans have signed onto the brief, which argues that the president overstepped his constitutional authority when he allowed millions of immigrants to stay in the country, despite the fact they were residing in the country illegally.
The Supreme Court– which is now made up of eight justices after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death – is expected to hear arguments in the case, United States v. Texas, on April 18. If the president’s executive actions are upheld, millions of immigrants in the country illegally will be eligible to stay. The Senate’s GOP’s action on the matter reveals just how invested the Republican Party is in blocking the president ‘s immigration legacy, which it sees as overreach.
According to Politico, 43 of 54 Republican senators signed onto the brief. Several Republicans who declined to sign onto it are running for re-election including Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Rob Portman (R-OH), Richard Burr (R-NC). Other Republicans who declined to endorse the brief included Sens. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) Dean Heller (R-NV), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME), Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Cory Gardner (R-CO).
House Republicans also voted and passed their own amicus brief in the case.
This must be a pretty slow news day, or maybe we’ve just gotten spoiled. Regardless, nice picture of soon-to-be Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, a man apparently without much in his in-tray.
If the Congress doesn’t appropriate enough money to enable the President to round up and deport virtually every person who’s here without proper documentation, it has, in effect, given the President the authority to prioritize the cases.
This is not complicated.
Finally! Now the SCOTUS will know how the Senate Republicans feel about the President. And immigrants. And the SCOTUS.
They can file SCOTUS briefs but can’t do their Constitutional SCOTUS role???
Methinks McTurtle and his nefarious gang filed this as a test case, seeing as how all the recent SC decisions have gone against them. To wit, losing this one would signal to McTurtle the need to drop his highly partisan fight in opposing any SC nominee’s successful nomination by Obama.
Lose this case and the SC’s may also be sending him a message: hey dummy, we need a ninth SC justice and now, not next year!