(NY Times) – President Obama will put off a confrontation at the Supreme Court over his immigration executive actions, choosing not to ask for permission to carry out the programs while a fight over presidential authority plays out in the lower courts, officials said Wednesday.
As a result, Mr. Obama’s vast overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, which he announced with great fanfare last November, might not be resolved until just months before he leaves office.
In a statement on Wednesday, officials from the Justice Department said they would not ask the Supreme Court to reverse this week’s decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that continues to block the president’s immigration actions.
The statement said the department was committed to defending the president’s actions and getting the immigration programs in place with certainty.
“The department believes the best way to achieve this goal is to focus on the ongoing appeal on the merits of the preliminary injunction itself,” said Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesman for the Justice Department. “Although the department continues to disagree with the Fifth Circuit’s refusal to stay the district court’s preliminary injunction, the department has determined that it will not seek a stay from the Supreme Court.”
The president’s executive actions, which would have blocked deportation and provided work permits to millions of undocumented immigrants, have been on hold since a Texas judge ordered a halt, calling it an executive overreach and saying it violated the government’s administrative procedures.
Rather than continue to fight to overturn the judge’s blocking order, administration officials said Wednesday that government lawyers would wait and make what they believe will be a stronger argument on the merits of the president’s immigration program.
Those oral arguments before the Fifth Circuit are scheduled to begin during the week of July 6, and administrationofficials expressed confidence that they would eventually succeed in defending Mr. Obama’s authority to overhaul the immigration system.
The decision not to ask the Supreme Court to allow the program to move forward now is also the result of a practical reality, officials said. Even if the court had given the government the green light to implement carry out program, the ongoing legal fight would probably have scared away most of the undocumented immigrants who would have to come out from the shadows to apply for the benefits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/us/obama-immigration-executive-action-supreme-court.html
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