What’s Next in U.S. v. Texas Given SCOTUS 4-4 Tie?

Today’s 4-4 tie leaves a nationwide preliminary injunction in place, pending a trial on the merits before Judge Hanen, who has shown great hostility not only to the merits of President Obama’s immigration actions but also to the DOJ’s lawyering in the case. A nationwide injunction means the administration right now could not enforce its actions anywhere.

There may be hurdles to getting another case in another part of the country going, but immigration proponents (and maybe DOJ) could try to do so, and create some alternative ruling somewhere else in the country, which could create a clash with Judge Hanen’s injunction. It is not clear that the government would even want an immigration policy that would be administered differently in different parts of the country, and how SCOTUS would react if that were a real possibility. But I expect we’ll see some serous court actions elsewhere in the country before this all settles.

There’s also the fact that the Obama administration’s term could end before this gets resolved.

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