Justice Samuel Alito issued the latest administrative orders on a Texas law that would have gone into effect Wednesday. Alito and the Supreme Court on Tuesday extended a temporary freeze on the enforcement of Texas’ controversial immigration law, Senate Bill 4, that allows state law enforcement to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally.
The Supreme Court’s administrative holds, which will remain paused through Monday, will give the court additional time to “review briefing in the case and do not necessarily signal which way the justices are leaning on the underlying request” reports CNN.
Senate Bill 4 was signed into law by Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott in December. The Justice Department argued that the law would “profoundly” alter the status quo “that has existed between the United States and the States in the context of immigration for almost 150 years.”
A federal judge in Austin, Texas, blocked the state government from implementing the law. But a federal appeals court granted a temporary stay of the lower court’s decision and said it would take effect on March 10 if the Supreme Court didn’t act.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, and other officials told the Supreme Court on Monday that the “Constitution recognizes that Texas has the sovereign right to defend itself from violent transnational cartels that flood the State with fentanyl, weapons, and all manner of brutality.”
The state officials described Texas in court papers as being “the nation’s first-line defense against transnational violence” and said the state has been “forced to deal with the deadly consequences of the federal government’s inability or unwillingness to protect the border.”
