The U.S. Supreme Court handed President Biden's administration a victory in a long-running fight about how to enforce the nation's immigration laws.
The case concerned the Biden administration's attempt to set guidelines for whom immigration authorities can target for arrest and deportation. Texas and Louisiana sued to block the guidelines, arguing that they were preventing immigration authorities from doing their jobs.
The Supreme Court held by a vote of 8-1 that the states lacked standing to challenge the guidelines in the first place.
Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh described the legal challenge before the court as "an extraordinarily unusual lawsuit."
The states challenging the guidelines "want a federal court to order the Executive Branch to alter its arrest policies so as to make more arrests," Kavanaugh wrote. "Federal courts have not traditionally entertained that kind of lawsuit; indeed, the States cite no precedent for a lawsuit like this."
Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts joined with the court's liberals in the majority opinion. Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch each wrote separate, concurring opinions that reached the same conclusion, but offered a different legal rationale. Only Justice Samuel Alito dissented, arguing that Texas and Louisiana had met the requirements for standing and should have been allowed to sue.
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