The Supreme Court ducked taking a major case involving the Obama-era DACA program but did agree Tuesday morning to hear a gun-rights case, in what legal analysts said could be the final word on the court’s schedule for this term.
Hours later the Justice Department[1] threw a curve, asking the justices to speed up a case involving the administration’s quest to ask about citizenship on the 2020 census. The department said the case is so momentous that the justices should hear it even before a lower appeals court has a chance.
They want the high court to overturn an Obama-appointed district judge who earlier this month erased the citizenship question from the 2020 count, ruling the government cut too many corners in its attempt to add the question in.
Normally, the justices would have firmed up the arguments for the rest of this year, legal experts said, with Tuesday’s list of cases being the final ones to make the cut.
The justices did not take any action on a case involving the Deferred Action from Childhood Arrivals program, leading analysts to conclude the case won’t be heard this term — and the program can remain in operation in the meantime, protecting some 700,000 “Dreamers.”
“Today immigrant youth can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that DACA protections will be safe for a few more months,” said Sanaa Abrar, advocacy director at United We Dream, a major advocacy group. “In mid-February, the court will announce whether they will take up the case in their next session this fall.”
Courts in New York, California, Texas, Maryland and Washington, D.C., have issued conflicting rulings on the legality of the 2012 program, which President Obama declared by
