SCOTUS Smacks Down Texas’ Attempt To Slow Roll Immigration Case

FILE - This Friday, Oct. 3, 2014 file photo, shows the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. The Supreme Court is casting a skeptical eye on voter-approved commissions that draw a state's congressional district boundarie... FILE - This Friday, Oct. 3, 2014 file photo, shows the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. The Supreme Court is casting a skeptical eye on voter-approved commissions that draw a state's congressional district boundaries. The justices heard arguments Monday, March 2, 2015 in an appeal from Arizona Republicans who object to the state's independent redistricting commission that voters created to reduce political influence in the process. A decision against the commission also would threaten a similar system in neighboring California and could affect commissions in an additional 11 states. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) MORE LESS
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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.

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