Supreme Court upholds Title 42 until February

Late Tuesday afternoon, five carefully crafted Supreme Court conservatives decided to leave the so-called Title 42 in place. This is just a piece of heaven from the previous administration that allows immigrants to be quickly deported without considering asylum. Claim. The policy should have died a quiet death last week, but Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has done so by suspending the deadline. Of policy entirely in February.

If this suggests to you another one of the Court’s foregone conclusions, I have no objection to you. In the end, Roberts’ suspension made this delay inevitable.from Washington Post:

But the court’s action is temporary and will consider in February whether the state has legal standing to intervene in the dispute. prevented, the court said. “The suspension itself does not prevent the federal government from taking any action on its policy,” the unsigned order said. ”.

A month ago, a DC judge unearthed the banal rationale the previous administration* used to implement Title 42 in the first place. Camp Lunamac (Goebbels-esque appalachique, with Steven Miller’s greasy fingerprints all over the decision) caps it off with more than just the vintage xenophobic touch that’s been around since before shutting down Ellis Island. Justified. Immigrants are criminals carrying exotic diseases to which whites have no immunity! Also had his COVID strain resistant to injections of household cleaners and the introduction of UV lamps in his buttocks.

In November, a Washington, D.C. trial court judge sided with immigration advocates who sued the government during the Trump administration, revoking Title 42, a policy that endangered immigrants and protected public health. said there was no evidence. U.S. District Judge Emmett G. Sullivan said the order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was put in place as a way to stem the spread of the coronavirus, is “arbitrary and capricious” under federal law. Sullivan writes, “There is no doubt that the impact on immigration has been truly disastrous.”

The administration’s decision to maintain its policy of repealing Title 42 is a dangerous one. Even if it wins in court, the short-term repercussions of killing Title 42 are likely to be at least moderately chaotic, and likely chaotic on TV, so it’s present in many media gatekeepers. A boon to barely potential Trumpism. But the justification of the old policy is so abhorrent that abolishing it would be a big step towards a shift in conversation that could lead to real reform.

At the very least, it would excise part of Stephen Miller’s legacy, and that’s all good.

Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently stupid americaand has been working as a journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.