Obama Immigration Plan Blocked by Deadlocked Court

Split leaves intact lower-court ruling against plan, but establishes no precedent.

A Supreme Court stalemate on Thursday blocked President Barack Obama’s plan to defer deportation and provide work authorization to millions of illegal immigrants, but the 4-4 tie established no precedent and pushed the issue back into the political arena.

The one-sentence decision was an anticlimactic end to Mr. Obama’s ambitious plan to push his executive authority over immigration to the outer limit, a move blocked by a federal court in Brownsville, Texas, after Texas led 26 Republican-leaning states in a lawsuit against the policy.

The outcome doesn’t require the administration to begin deportations of the affected immigrants—all of whom had significant ties to the U.S., starting with children who are U.S. citizens or lawful residents. But it does halt the government’s plan to normalize their presence, at least temporarily, by granting them authorization to work.

Speaking from the White House, President Obama expressed frustration with the decision.

“The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court,” the court wrote.

If there was a silver lining for the administration, it was the absence of Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February. Had he lived to vote on the case, he almost certainly would have sided with Texas and created a national precedent limiting executive power over immigration policy.

Immigration policy has been one of the sharpest difference between the two parties in the presidential election. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has called for a wall along the Mexican border and the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, while Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has called for easing deportations.

In a statement Thursday, Mrs. Clinton called the Supreme Court’s decision “unacceptable” and said families needed “relief from the specter of deportation.” Mrs. Clinton said that in her first 100 days in office she would introduce an immigration plan that included a path to citizenship.

Mrs. Clinton has repeatedly said that absent legislative action, she will defend the Obama executive actions and try to expand them.

Her rival, Mr. Trump, said in a statement, “The executive amnesty from President Obama wiped away the immigration rules written by Congress, giving work permits and entitlement benefits to people illegally in the country,”

“This split decision also makes clear what is at stake in November. The election, and the Supreme Court appointments that come with it will decide whether or not we have a border and, hence, a country,” he added.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling makes the president’s executive action on immigration null and void,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) said. “The Constitution is clear: The president is not permitted to write laws—only Congress is.”

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