Supreme Court Will Hear Executive Amnesty Appeal

The Supreme Court will have the final say on the legality of President Obama’s executive amnesty.

The court agreed to hear the case Tuesday. The Obama administration is appealing the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ November decision to keep in place a district court’s ruling blocking the amnesty programs from moving forward.

Obama’s 2014 effort to grant millions of illegal immigrants de facto legal status and work permits  hangs in the balance. According to Reuters, the case will be argued the first half of this year with an expected ruling in June, before the 2016 presidential election.

The court will decide the final outcome in Texas and 25 states’ lawsuit seeking to block the administration’s executive amnesty programs. So far the states have been successful at the district and appeals court levels.

The states and Republicans have argued that the Obama administration’s executive amnesty is an unconstitutional overreach of executive authority. The administration maintains it was within it’s right to shield millions from deportation and grant them work permits.

The government appealed to the high court shortly after the 5th Circuit ruled in favor of upholding the amnesty block.

“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.

The states called for the court to let the ruling stand or rule in their favor.

“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.”