The US Supreme Court on Monday removed an injunction imposed by a New York district court concerning a new Trump Administration immigration "public charge" rule, which would restrict immigrants who may rely on public assistance from entering the US.
Solicitor General Noel Francisco filed an emergency application this month with the US Supreme Court to stay injunctions and allow implementation of the new rule. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seeks to designate such immigrants who rely on monetary or non-monetary government assistance or may do so in the future as a "public charge" under the new rule.
A New York federal court injunction in October prohibited the rule from national implementation. DHS appealed the decision, but the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit refused to overturn the injunction. The Supreme Court’s decision on Monday will allow the Trump administration to implement the new rule.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a concurring opinion, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, critical of what he sees as a growth in injunctions by lower courts, what he called "the increasingly common practice of trial courts ordering relief that transcends the cases before them."
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan disagreed with the action.
(Published by Jurist Org, January 28, 2020)
______________