Washington, DC – This morning, as urged by Constitutional Accountability Center, the U.S. Supreme Court granted review in United States v. Texas, deciding to examine a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that has blocked implementation of President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program (DAPA). Constitutional Accountability Center issued the following reaction to today’s news:

“We applaud the Supreme Court for appropriately reserving time on its docket to decide this critical case before the current Term ends in June,” said CAC Chief Counsel Elizabeth Wydra. “The President’s program has been delayed for far too long by this political lawsuit and the clearly erroneous decisions of the lower courts. The lives of millions of children and families in America have been disrupted and held in limbo – a situation the President’s action was designed to alleviate – and they deserve the Court’s careful and prompt attention.”

CAC Appellate Counsel Brianne Gorod continued, “The Obama Administration’s immigration action was clearly lawful. The nation’s immigration laws give the executive branch significant discretion to determine how best to implement those laws in a manner that serves the national interest in public safety and national security. The action at issue here is legally no different than countless other exercises of executive discretion engaged in by presidents of both parties and blessed by both parties in Congress.”

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Resources:

CAC’s “friend of the court” brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Texas on behalf of Republican and Democratic former members of Congress: Michael Barnes, Howard Berman, Victor Fazio, Charles Gonzalez, Raymond LaHood, James Leach, Richard Lugar, George Miller, John Porter, David Skaggs, and Henry Waxman: http://theusconstitution.org/sites/default/files/briefs/CAC-Texas-v-US-Cert-Amicus.pdf  

“Next up at the Supreme Court: Obama’s Immigration Policy,” Simon Lazarus, The New Republic, January 13, 2016: https://newrepublic.com/article/127504/next-supreme-court-obamas-immigration-policy 

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Constitutional Accountability Center (www.theusconstitution.org) is a think tank, public interest law firm, and action center dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of the Constitution’s text and history.

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