A crowd watches as the body of the late Justice Antonin Scalia is taken into the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on February 19, 2016. Photo by Indianz.Com
The closely-watched Dollar General Corporation v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians wasn't the only 4-4 tie at the U.S. Supreme Court during its unusual term. A deadlock in a controversial immigration case has Linda Greenhouse, who covered the high court for decades, calling for more transparency:
In sharp distinction from its neighbor on Capitol Hill, where entire agendas can disappear without a fingerprint, the justices take ownership of their work. They sign their opinions. They explain how they reached their conclusions. It’s essential: Having bestowed upon this handful of life-tenured individuals such enormous, even anomalous, power, in a democracy, the American people should expect at the very least that the justices are willing to stand up and be counted. And then came last week’s deadlock in the immigration case, a 4-to-4 tie announced in a single sentence — “The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided court” — without identifying the justices on either side or their competing views. Since a tie vote automatically affirms the lower court’s ruling, the result in this case, United States v. Texas, was to bar more than four million people, unauthorized immigrants who are the parents of United States citizens or legal residents, from the benefit of deferred deportation that President Barack Obama intended to confer on them. “Seldom have so many hopes been crushed by so few words,” Walter Dellinger, a former acting solicitor general, wrote on Slate. Undoubtedly the split was ideological, the most conservative four on one side and the most liberal four on the other. But what were the views that couldn’t be reconciled? Was the disagreement over whether Texas had standing to sue the Obama administration? (Standing to sue requires a concrete injury, and the state’s almost fatuous claim to standing was that issuing driver’s licenses to newly eligible immigrants would cost too much.) Over whether the deferral policy’s promulgation was procedurally flawed? Over whether the president overreached his authority under immigration law or under the Constitution itself?Get the Story:
Linda Greenhouse: The Supreme Court’s Silent Failure on Immigration (The New York Times 6/26) Also Today:
Speak Up or Stay Hidden? Undocumented Immigrants Cautious After Court Ruling (The New York Times 6/27)
When the Eight-Member Supreme Court Avoids Deadlocks, It Leans Left (The New York Times 6/27)
With tears and resolve, immigrants vow to keep fighting (AP 6/24)
The Supreme Court didn’t answer its own questions on immigration. Here’s what comes next. (The Washington Post 6/24)
How the Supreme Court’s deadlock will change immigration politics (The Washington Post 6/24)
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