President Donald Trump and his administration scored another legal victory this week.
The Supreme Court lifted the last remaining injunction on the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule on Friday, according to Newsweek, paving the way for the policy to take effect Monday. The rule, Newsweek reported, “seeks to make it more difficult for immigrants who are likely to ‘become a public charge’ to obtain visas and green cards in the U.S.”
The court makes its ruling
Formally titled the Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds policy, part of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the rule has been referred to as a “wealth test” for immigrants. It looks to lighten the burden that some immigrants would put on American taxpayers by making it more difficult for migrants who would likely rely on government benefits, like Medicaid and food stamps, to obtain legal residency.
It doesn’t make it impossible for these individuals to obtain such status, but rather, discourages them from doing so, according to Fox News.
Critics soon took issue with the policy and sought to block it via the judicial system. But in January, the Supreme Court ruled 5–4 against “a nationwide injunction imposed by a federal judge in New York,” according to The Hill — and now, they’ve done the same for the last remaining injunction in place.
The decision to dismiss Wolf v. Cook County, which “sought to reject the policy’s effect in Illinois,” according to The Hill, went along conservative–liberal lines; the five conservative justices — including Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh — voted to lift the injunction, while the court’s four liberal judges dissented.
Reactions pour in
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested that her conservative colleagues’ ruling suggests their bias in favor of the Trump administration.
“Today’s decision follows a now-familiar pattern,” Sotomayor wrote, according to The Hill. “The Government seeks emergency relief from this Court, asking it to grant a stay where two lower courts have not. The Government insists — even though review in a court of appeals is imminent — that it will suffer irreparable harm if this Court does not grant a stay. And the Court yields.”
Meanwhile, the White House has indicated that it is celebrating the high court’s ruling.
“We are gratified by the Supreme Court ruling on Friday night lifting the final remaining injunction on the public charge regulation,” Trump Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement Saturday.
She went on: “This final rule will protect hardworking American taxpayers, safeguard welfare programs for truly needy Americans, reduce the Federal deficit, and re-establish the fundamental legal principle that newcomers to our society should be financially self-reliant and not dependent on the largess of United States taxpayers.”
Indeed, this is good news for the Trump administration — and, more importantly, for America.
No comments: