On Thursday, the Supreme Court divided 5-4 over whether to stay a lower court injunction against a Biden Administration immigration enforcement guidance. A district court in Texas issued a nationwide injunction against the guidance that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit refused to stay.
This was the first published order in which Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson participated. It was also the first time the Court has ever split 5-4 along gender lines (and the first time that such a split was even possible). All four female justices voted to grant the stay in United States v. Texas. The five male justices did not. The Court did, however, grant certiorari in the case on the following questions:
1. Whether the state plaintiffs have Article III standing to challenge the Department of Homeland Security's Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Law;
2. Whether the Guidelines are contrary to 8 U.S.C. §1226(c) or 8 U.S.C. §1231(a), or otherwise violate the Administrative Procedure Act; and
3. Whether 8 U.S.C. §1252(f)(1) prevents the entry of an order to "hold unlawful and set aside" the Guidelines under 5 U.S.C. §706(2).
