A Republican-backed Texas law that would allow state law enforcement authorities to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border was blocked again by an appeals court on Wednesday, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court had cleared the way for it to go into effect.

A late night ruling on Tuesday from the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the enforcement of the law ahead of oral arguments on the issue scheduled for Wednesday.

The legal back and forth in the case has caused uncertainty about the future of the controversial measure put in place by Republican Governor of Texas Greg Abbott. The law is opposed by the democratic administration of President Joe Bidenwhich says it would impede the federal government from enforcing immigration laws.

  • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    3 months ago

    So, in reading a few articles about this, SCOTUS’s reasoning, which was IMHO still fatally flawed and partisan given the procedural facts, was based on the idea that the 5th Circuit was only issuing a “temporary” stay on the District Court’s order, and that Circuits have always had the authority to manage how the case is going. It seems like, behind the scenes, somebody also told the 5th that they’re making them all look bad by taking so long, so they need to shit or get off the pot and actually decide something.

    Therefore, a 3-judge panel of the 5th actually looked at the District Court’s order, already itself temporary and MUCH more in line with existing American caselaw on immigration, and said yes of course the status quo should remain, given the novel (and imho also terrible) arguments by Texas. Frankly, even if somehow we end up with an absurdly partisan final decision that says Texas has “invasion powers” right now due to the massive “army” of hungry Venezuelan moms asking for asylum, this would be a total rewrite of immigration jurisprudence, and any “conservative” court should have waited until they were ready to lay out an “originalist” interpretation of the constitution.

    Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think the quotation marks key on my keyboard is worn out.