Justices won’t rule on ‘Dreamers’ yet
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s highly unusual bid to bypass a federal appeals court and get the justices to intervene in the fate of a program that protects hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.
The announcement means the case affecting “Dreamers” will have to work its way through the lower courts before any Supreme Court ruling is possible. The case also could become moot if Congress takes action in the meantime. Right now, however, efforts to address the issue in Congress have hit a stalemate.
The Supreme Court’s decision to stay out of the case on the Obamaera Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, wasn’t surprising. It’s highly unusual for the Supreme Court to hear a case before a lower appeals court has considered it.
But DACA supporters hailed the decision as a significant — if only temporary — win. President Donald Trump said the case would now be heard by an appeals court and “we’ll see what happens from there.”
DACA has provided protection from deportation, as well as work permits, for about 800,000 young people who came to the U.S. as children and stayed illegally.
In September, Trump argued that President Barack Obama had exceeded his executive powers when he created the program. Trump announced he was ending the program effective March 5 unless lawmakers came up with a legislative fix.
But in recent weeks, federal judges in San Francisco and New York have made Trump’s deadline temporarily moot for people who have sought and been granted renewals; the rulings do not extend to people who are applying for the first time. Judges issued injunctions ordering the administration to keep DACA in place while courts consider legal challenges to Trump’s termination.
As a result, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services resumed accepting and processing DACA renewals in January, just as it had before Trump’s September announcement.
The Supreme Court’s announcement now means the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will likely be the first appeals court to weigh in on the topic, the step before the case would return to the Supreme Court.
Gorsuch holds key in major union case
With the justice holding the decisive vote silent, a divided Supreme Court sparred Monday over a case that could undermine the financial footing of labor unions that represent government workers.
The justices heard arguments in a challenge to an Illinois law that allows unions representing government employees to collect fees from workers who choose not to join.
The lawyers’ arguments and some of the justices’ comments appeared to be pitched to attract newcomer Neil Gorsuch. The court split 4-4 the last time it considered the issue in 2016 following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Gorsuch joined the court in April.
The unions, saying the outcome could affect more than 5 million government workers in 24 states and the District of Columbia, argue that so-called fair-share fees pay for collective bargaining and other work the union does on behalf of all employees, not just its members.
A decision is expected by late June.