Photo: Brandon Bell / Getty Images News / Getty Images
The United States Supreme Court rejected an emergency request by the Biden administration to issue a stay blocking Texas from enforcing a law that would allow state officials to arrest and deport people suspected of entering the country illegally.
While the Supreme Court did not explain why it ended the stay, Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh issued a concurring opinion suggesting the court should not be involved in reviewing preliminary injunctions issued by an appeals court.
"Before this Court intervenes on the emergency docket, the Fifth Circuit should be the first mover," Barrett explained.
"So far as I know, this court has never reviewed the decision of a court of appeals to enter – or not enter – an administrative stay," Barrett wrote. "I would not get into the business. When entered, an administrative stay is supposed to be a short-lived prelude to the main event: a ruling on the motion for a stay pending appeal."
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a dissenting opinion, arguing the law should remain on hold until its merits have been decided.
"Texas can now immediately enforce its own law imposing criminal liability on thousands of noncitizens and requiring their removal to Mexico," Sotomayor wrote. "This law will disrupt sensitive foreign relations, frustrate the protection of individuals fleeing persecution, hamper active federal enforcement efforts, undermine federal agencies' ability to detect and monitor imminent security threats, and deter noncitizens from reporting abuse or trafficking."