Supreme Court’s DACA Case Interwoven With Another Obama Program

The fate of former President Barack Obama’s signature immigration program is turning, in part, on its relationship to another program that never got off the ground.

The U.S. Supreme Court this week heard oral arguments in three related cases over the Trump administration’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Launched in 2012, it provides deportation protection and work permits to some 660,000 young, undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

The Trump administration’s primary reason for ending DACA is its belief that the program’s unlawful. Administration critics, however, say this allows the White House ...