“We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort.”
12/28/22
from The Gray Area:
12/28/22:
Per The Wall Street Journal, "A 5-4 Supreme Court majority on Tuesday gave 19 states and President Biden a reprieve by letting Title 42 stand for now as a legal means to expel illegal migrants. But Justice Neil Gorsuch strikes us as right on the legal merits in his dissent from that order. He was joined in dissent Tuesday by his three liberal peers." Gorsuch said in part, “We [The Supreme Court] are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort, ... only because elected officials have failed to address a different emergency...”
This is a very fair appraisal of the situation with Title 42 at this time.
Right now we have a crisis at the southern border which Democrats in Congress and President Biden refuse to recognize and/or address. In November of this year, 73,000 illegal migrants are known to have gotten away. That does not count those we do not know about who got away or the 100s of thousands a month that come through under asylum procedures. Oct/Nov saw the highest number of migrant encounters ever recorded. Yet the Biden Administration says the 'border is not open'.
If Title 42 is allowed to expire, those already record numbers will skyrocket! We are currently in a crisis situation and those Title 42 increases will take us to a situation beyond an emergency. Some have called this an 'invasion'. Even if you reject that description, you will have to agree that the situation will look like 'an invasion' when the expiration of Title 42 releases the next waves. This is the different emergency Justice Gorsuch cited. The previous emergency for which Title 42 was enacted , COVID 19, has passed. Yet, as we enter the cold & flu (& COVID) season, migrants at the border, who come in by the thousands daily, do not get COVID tests or vaccinations. It is at this point that the two emergencies overlap.
I doubt very seriously that Gorsuch's reason for dissent matches those of his liberal peers, but the Constitution is where he is standing and where The Supreme Court should always stand. But, I am happy that the other 5 Justices voted to temporarily let Title 42 stand.
There is no reason to believe that the Biden Administration will make necessary legislative changes to their open border policies. Even with a Republican majority in the House on January 3rd, the Democrat majority Senate would not let an immigration bill pass, nor would Biden sign one. Therefore, we must leave Title 42 as 'a finger in the dike', so we are not flooded with people we cannot handle or help under current law.
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