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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Mullin v. Doe and Trump v. Miot, holding that federal courts cannot review the executive branch’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation and termination decisions. America First Legal (AFL) filed an amicus brief on behalf of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, and the Court’s decision today fully adopted AFL’s primary argument.
In its decision, the Supreme Court held that the plain text of the Immigration and Nationality Act bars review of all non-constitutional challenges to TPS designation and termination decisions. The Court rejected the lower courts’ attempts to circumvent Congress’s command by characterizing their challenges as procedural rather than substantive, reaffirming that courts must apply the statute as written.
The Court further held that the plaintiffs challenging the termination of Haiti’s TPS designation were unlikely to succeed on their equal protection claim and reversed the lower courts’ orders blocking the terminations.
Temporary Protected Status is a program that allows certain foreign nationals already present in the United States to remain temporarily when conditions in their home countries make return unsafe. Congress expressly provided that “[t]here is no judicial review” of the Secretary of Homeland Security's decision to designate, extend, or terminate TPS for a foreign state.
AFL’s amicus brief, filed alongside James R. Conde of Boyden Gray PLLC, argued that the lower courts ignored this clear statutory command, improperly inserted themselves into decisions committed to the political branches, and exercised authority Congress never granted. The brief further explained that litigants cannot evade Congress’s limits on judicial review simply by repackaging statutory disagreements as constitutional or procedural claims.
Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito explained that the statute’s text is “clear” and that its “plain meaning is very broad.” The Court held that the TPS statute’s judicial-review bar “applies to all non-constitutional claims,” rejecting the lower courts’ contrary interpretation.
“Congress could not have been clearer. The statute expressly states that TPS designation and termination decisions are not subject to judicial review, yet lower courts repeatedly ignored that command,” said James Rogers, Senior Counsel at America First Legal. “Today’s decision is an important victory for the separation of powers and the rule of law. Courts do not have the license to rewrite statutes or assume powers Congress deliberately withheld.”
Read the Court’s opinion here.
Read AFL's amicus brief here.
Read more of AFL's Supreme Court amicus briefs here.
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