The U.S. Supreme Court could rule as early as this week on whether or not they will hear the government’s appeal to implement President Obama’s executive amnesty.
According to Reuters, the Supreme Court justices were slated to meet privately Friday to consider wether is will take up the administration’s appeal of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision to uphold U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s ruling, which halted the amnesty programs from moving forward.
At stake for the administration is Obama’s 2014 effort to grant millions of illegal immigrants de facto legal status and work permits — a move derided by Republicans as an unconstitutional overreach of executive power.
Early last year, Texas and 25 additional states sued the administration seeking to block executive amnesty. Thus far, at the district and appeals court levels, the states have been successful in their bid to prevent the administration’s executive amnesty from moving forward.
The Obama administration has argued that the executive branch was within its right to grant mass amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants and has appealed to the Supreme Court to allow the actions to move forward.
“If left undisturbed, that ruling [of the appeals court] will allow States to frustrate the federal government’s enforcement of the Nation’s immigration laws,” the Justice Department argued in its petition to the Supreme Court in November.
Texas and the states in December pressed the Supreme Court to allow the lower courts ruling to stand.
“President Obama’s executive action on immigration represents an unprecedented attempt to expand the power of the executive branch,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said when the states filed their petition. “The president alone does not have the authority to grant millions of illegal immigrants a host of benefits – like Social Security and Medicare – which should be reserved for lawful citizens.”