On Monday, we brought you the news of the Supreme Court (via Justice Samuel Alito) extending its stay of a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, which would have allowed Texas' SB4 to take effect while the court battle on the merits is waged. 

READ MORE: 

On Hold: Justice Alito Extends Stay of Texas Immigration Law That Would Allow Detention of Illegals

The law, which is being challenged by the Biden administration and immigration groups, allows state law enforcement officers to arrest and detain those suspected of entering the country illegally. (Bear with me for this next part.) A federal district court judge entered an injunction in late February preventing the law from going into effect. Texas appealed that ruling to the Fifth Circuit, which issued an administrative stay of the district court ruling. But then the Biden administration and immigration groups appealed that to the Supreme Court, which placed its own temporary hold on the Fifth Circuit's ruling and then extended that hold twice, including on Monday. 

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court lifted its stay of the Fifth Circuit ruling, thereby allowing the law to go into effect while it works its way through the courts on the merits. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated the win on social media. 

🚨🚨 HUGE WIN: Texas has defeated the Biden Administration’s and ACLU’s emergency motions at the Supreme Court. Our immigration law, SB 4, is now in effect. As always, it’s my honor to defend Texas and its sovereignty, and to lead us to victory in court.

— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) March 19, 2024

Texas Governor Greg Abbott also praised the decision. 

BREAKING: In a 6-3 decision SCOTUS allows Texas to begin enforcing SB4 that allows the arrest of illegal immigrants.

We still have to have hearings in the 5th circuit federal court of appeals.

But this is clearly a positive development.

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) March 19, 2024

However, as Abbott rightly notes, this is just a preliminary (and procedural) ruling. The case still needs to be heard and decided on the merits at the Fifth Circuit (and then likely back at the Supreme Court). 

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Texas Win: Appeals Court Allows Law Authorizing Arrest of Illegals to Take Effect Barring SC Intervention

Supreme Court Places Texas Immigration Law on Hold

Also, as indicated, this was a 6-3 decision, with the court's liberal justices dissenting from the opinion, which may be viewed in its entirety below. 

This one's already a bit procedurally confusing, but to try to sum it up: 

• The majority did not issue a separate opinion — just denied the plaintiffs' application to vacate the Fifth Circuit ruling and vacated Alito's previously entered orders. 
• Justice Amy Coney Barrett issued a concurring opinion, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in which she contends that because the stay entered by the Fifth Circuit was a temporary administrative stay rather than a formal stay pending appeal, it really isn't appropriate for the Supreme Court to be reviewing it at this point. 
• Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a dissenting opinion, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in which she contends that the majority's decision "gives a green light to a law that will upend the longstanding federal-state balance of power and sow chaos, when the only court to consider the law concluded that it is likely unconstitutional." Sotomayor is critical of the court's "stand(ing) idle" in the face of the ruling by the Fifth Circuit, which she maintains "abused its discretion by entering an unreasoned and indefinite administrative stay that altered the status quo." 
• Justice Elena Kagan issued a separate dissenting opinion in which she contends that regardless of whether the Fifth Circuit's stay was administrative or a formal stay pending appeal, the subject of immigration and removal of noncitizens are the purview of the federal government and so her default would be to not allow the law to go into effect while it is sorted out on the merits. 

Reading between the lines of the concurring and dissenting opinions, none of the justices who authored them are particularly enamored of the way the Fifth Circuit chose to handle this issue procedurally. Currently, the case is set for oral argument before the Fifth Circuit on April 3rd, but whether or not there will be some additional procedural wrangling (e.g., an attempt to prompt a formal stay pending appeal and further review of same) between now and then remains to be seen. 

Scotus - TX - Stay Lifted by Susie Moore on Scribd