The United States Supreme Court granted a request to block Title 42 from being lifted, thereby agreeing to the possibility of hearing the challenge from the lower court’s decision to immediately expel migrants who arrived in the country during the Covid-19 pandemic by ending the use of the public health law. This request was made by Republican officials wishing to begin the rapid expulsion of the migrants. Five of the four Justices agreed to grant the review, with the dissenting Justices being Neil Gorsuch, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor. In the dissent, Justic Gorusch stated, “The majority’s decision to grant expedited review of the matter and forcing the federal government to continue enforcing Title 42 indefinitely is “unwise.” The emergency of the coronavirus pandemic that gave rise to the use of Title 42 “has long since lapsed”.
Gorusch continued in the dissent, “And courts should not be in the business of perpetuating administrative edicts designed for one emergency only because elected officials have failed to address a different emergency. We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort. And it is hardly obvious why we should rush in to review a ruling on a motion to intervene in a case concerning emergency decrees that have outlived their shelf life.”
