Fri Sep 29, 2023

United States v. Texas, Regents, and the Roberts Legacy on DACA (Dorf on Law)

Earlier this month, Judge Andrew Hanen—the Bush-appointed judge in Texas who, back in 2015, Republican state elected officials handpicked to give legal effect to their political attacks on the Obama administration’s immigration policies—issued his latest ruling invalidating DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative. Compared to earlier episodes in the long-running litigation over the Obama-era deferred action initiatives, the responses to Hanen’s latest ruling have seemed somewhat muted—not least, perhaps, because the outcome was entirely expected. News organizations and commentators have devoted relatively limited attention to Hanen’s ruling, and statements criticizing the decision have seemed to carry a certain amount of resigned fatigue. DACA’s most outspoken political opponents have also seemed mostly preoccupied by other matters. Even Hanen himself seemed to lack in this decision the kind of big xenophobic energy that he often exhibits in his immigration-related opinions.

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Tue Jun 28, 2016

United States v. Texas: The Supreme Court’s Silent Endorsement of Trumpisprudence (Dorf on Law)

United States v. Texas, summarizedIt may be tempting to regard the Supreme Court’s deadlocked decision last week in United States v. Texas, the Republican lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s 2014 immigration initiatives, as something of a “non-decision” or “punt.” The Court’s one-line opinion—which, by convention, affirms the lower court’s judgment but has no further precedential effect—does not address any of the substantive issues presented in the case. Nor does the opinion itself disclose how any of the justices voted on any of the questions before them, although there seems little mystery as to which justices were likely on each side of the decision. And especially since the case came to the Supreme Court at the preliminary injunction stage, the litigation may be far from over—making it even more plausible to understand the Court’s decision as one that defers ultimate resolution of those issues.

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Wed Apr 20, 2016

The Strange Career of United States v. Texas (Dorf on Law)

The Strange Career of United States v. TexasWhen the justices of the Supreme Court deliberate over the issues in United States v. Texas, the Republican lawsuit seeking to invalidate the Obama administration’s immigration initiatives, they would do well to reflect upon just how far the arguments that the plaintiffs have presented to them diverge from those that were presented to Judge Andrew Hanen in the Southern District of Texas when the lawsuit was originally filed.

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