The Supreme Court Will Hear Texas’ Challenge to Obama’s Immigration Plan

Texas had led a 26-state coalition to overturn an executive program that President Obama announced in 2014.

By Rhonda FanningJanuary 19, 2016 3:55 pm,

Texas’ Republican leadership is celebrating the news today that the U.S. Supreme Court will consider its case against President Obama’s immigration program. Texas has been leading a 26-state coalition effort to overturn the program, which would shield more than 4 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Ross Ramsey, executive editor of the Texas Tribune, says the decision is a big day for Texas. The lawsuit claims that President Obama made law something that Congress couldn’t pass, which says, in effect, “let’s prioritize which people we would deport if we deported them,” Ramsey says.

So far, two courts have upheld a block on the legislation: the Brownsville district court and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

The surprise here is the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case, Ramsey says. “They could have just agreed and said, We’re not taking the case, let it stand as is,” he says. Because they will hear the case in April, Ramsey says the possibility remains for the Court to overturn the decision.

“The other (possibility) is that they wanted to say something more than what the Fifth Circuit said,” Ramsey says. “The Supreme Court wants to say something else.”