In a small-bore procedural move with big-time 2016 implications, the Supreme Court Tuesday kept a major immigration case on track to be potentially decided before the November elections.
The states suing President Obama over his immigration executive actions had asked the court for a 30-day extension on their deadline to file briefs in the case, which the administration appealed to the high court last month. Had the court granted the full 30-day extension, it would have been much less likely the case would have been heard in time for an end-of-the-term decision next year.
Instead, the court gave the states only an additional eight days to file their briefs replying to the administration’s petition, according to SCOTUSblog. The move means the case could be heard in the spring — as the administration had hoped — with a decision by the summer, ahead of the 2016 election. While the court has yet to accept the case, it is widely anticipated that it will grant review.
Typically, the court will grant extensions to parties who request more time to file the briefs, as the 26 states in the lawsuit — which are being led by Texas — had sought. The administration, however, had stressed the urgency to resolve the case this term. A delay pushing it into the next term would “prolong for an additional year the disruption of federal immigration policy,” Solicitor General Donald Verrilli wrote the court in a letter Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.
Verrilli said the administration would forego its right to file reply briefs if the court limited the Texas extension to eight days, for a Dec. 29 deadline. That would allow the Supreme Court to consider the petition during its private conference in January, giving it time to get a hearing on the case on the calendar for the spring so that a decision could be issued by late June or early July.
The court, of course, has the jurisdiction to delay the process at any step of the way.
The states are suing the Department of Homeland Security over its move to “defer” the deportations of certain undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as minors and certain undocumented immigrants related to U.S. residents with legal status. A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month that a lower court was correct in blocking Obama’s actions, prompting the administration to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
So even with a seemingly optimistic timeline…the entire process can still all go to shit with useless delays and overtime. Nuff said.
I’d say, Not quite nuff said. I think the SCOTUS has determined as a group it’s knows enough on “urgency” and on the issues at play. I DOD accept your emphasis on Tierney Sneed’s caution: the SCOTUS doesn’t agree on a whole lot, but it does agree that it doesn’t want IT to be made out as a proxy battlefield during a presidential election.
If the SCOTUS were delay RELEASE of its decision until after next November’s election, that would be inconsisent with whatever we can take in the way of policy from recent SCOTUS behavior, yet actually not be unlawful. Stll - if they didn’t do that in the Obamacare challenge in 2012, it doesn’t seem likely they’ll go that way on immigration.
The administration is going to win this one, but I’m not convinced anyone - other than those who actually ‘liked’ Roe v Wade - will like HOW that win looks. If the decision gets cobbled together from matching up a more-or-less uniform position on behalf of the 4 liberals with a conservative decision with or without one vote in support of that technical dissent, with a uniform view from the 3 most reflexively conservative bank of Alito, Scalia & Thomas, I think it’d be hard to believe some new problems won’t replace the existing ones - yet, that’s the most likely scenario.
I agree — Unless " a " particular justice just decides it’s time to vent a little past frustration — Wouldn’t put it past " him " —
Oh noes, this might cast a bad light on the Republican Party and their gargantuan efforts to win over their despised neighbors, Oh noes!
There are some Mexicans that vote ® and a few blacks-like 3 and I think they are all either current or past Presidential candidates, and a handful Asians, more women than I can believe and the same goes for the log cabin gays but the facts are, all of the vast majority of all of these groups despises the Repub Party with or without them adding in new hate.
The Democrats might as well keep pushing these issues in front of the Repubs, it gives them the opportunity to renew their racial biases and hone their lying skills.
Issue Executive order after executive order and let the Republicans go wild fighting them, even if we lose-we win and that’s the shit.
The issue, from my understanding, really won’t be about immigration, but rather upon the Executive Branch’s ability to prioritize its workload and determine how to apply its resources, both of which have long standing precedents supporting the President’s position.
And viewed through that prism, it makes it more difficult for conservatives to line up against this case, as they aren’t tying Obama’s hands in any meaningful way, but they ARE tying the hands of all future Presidents…including republican ones.