DREAM Act Portal Forum - States press Supreme Court on Obama-immigration case

States press Supreme Court on Obama-immigration case

Quote:

More than two dozen Republican-led states waging a legal battle against President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration urged the Supreme Court on Tuesday to uphold an injunction that has put the programs on hold for nearly a year.
Attorneys for the state of Texas, which is spearheading the lawsuit, filed the petition Tuesday opposing the Obama administration’s request that the Supreme Court hear the case. The controversial executive actions, announced in November 2014, could allow more than 4 million undocumented immigrants to live in the United States legally and obtain work permits.
Story Continued Below
But a federal judge in Texas issued an injunction halting those actions in February. And the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which is considered among the more conservative appellate courts in the nation, has twice sided with the GOP-led states.
Arguing that Obama’s actions are a sweeping abuse of executive power, those states want to keep their victory streak going.
“If [the Obama administration’s] arguments are accepted, there is nothing stopping this executive or future executives from invoking resource constraints to declare conduct lawful in other areas — such as environmental, tax, criminal, campaign-finance, and civil-rights laws,” Texas and the states wrote in the petition Tuesday asking the Supreme Court not to take up the case. The administration “urge[s] a view of executive power that is manifestly contrary to our separation of powers.”
The administration is hoping that the Supreme Court revives Obama's stalled immigration actions before the president leaves office in January 2017. The administration won a small but critical victory earlier this month when the Supreme Court granted Texas a mere eight-day extension to file a response to the administration’s request for the high court to hear the case. Texas had asked for a 30-day extension, which would likely have pushed the timeline to hear the case into the next Supreme Court term.
But under the current timeline, the Supreme Court could hand down a decision by June, should the justices choose to take up the case.
“President Obama’s executive action on immigration represents an unprecedented attempt to expand the power of the executive branch,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement Tuesday. “Rewriting national immigration law requires the full and careful consideration of Congress, and Texas will continue to fight this affront to the rule of law.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/1...#ixzz3vkvkDINn