Nearly two weeks ago, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis blocked the Trump administration’s second attempt to end the controversial Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration program. The decision confirmed a U.S. district judge in California’s decision in January to temporarily halt President Trump’s long-touted efforts to scrap the program altogether. So the Justice Department appealed to the Supreme Court, hoping they would bypass the usual appeals court process so that the White House could legally end DACA by the March 5th date it had previously promised to Republicans.
According to Politico, the Supreme Court responded to the Justice Department’s request with a unanimous “no” on Monday. And to make matters worse politically for the president and his supporters, “No justices dissented.” This means that not even Neil Gorsuch, the newly-confirmed justice Trump appointed to replace the seat left vacant by Antonin Scalia in 2016, was offering a dissenting opinion on the court’s decision to deny the Justice Department’s request.
Of course this doesn’t mean that the controversy is over. As Politico points out, the Supreme Court “could still weigh in later” whenever the appeals process runs its course and potentially makes its way back to them, and there’s no telling what there decision then might be. Even so, the refusal to speed things up means Dreamers “who received work permits and protection from deportation through DACA will likely be able to keep renewing their participation,” as these permits “are good for two years.”
(Via Politico)