Supreme Court Scraps Arguments Over Title 42 Border Case (2)

The US Supreme Court scrapped a planned March 1 argument over pandemic-era border restrictions after President Joe Biden’s administration announced it is planning to use a different legal avenue to end the policy.

The administration said last month that on May 11 it will end the Covid-19 emergency declaration that had formed the basis of the controversial Title 42 restrictions at the Mexican border. The Biden administration earlier this month told the justices the move would render the Supreme Court fight moot.

The restrictions have let the Trump and Biden administrations quickly expel people more than 2 million times since early 2020 amid an unprecedented tide of migrants and worries about the spread of Covid-19. Though Biden is seeking to end the policy, doing so would mean a fresh set of challenges, forcing him to manage a new influx at the southern border.

The Supreme Court didn’t give any explanation for the move, which in all likelihood will keep the border restrictions in place until the government ends the Covid emergency.

The high court case involves a decision that said former President Donald Trump’s administration didn’t give an adequate explanation when it put the Title 42 policy in place in 2020. In December, the justices put that decision on hold while they consider whether a group of Republican-led states could intervene in defense of the policy.

The decision to cancel the hearing came on the court’s own initiative. Although US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar had said the case would lose its practical significance on May 11, she hadn’t suggested scrapping the argument.

Thursday’s action doesn’t necessarily end the clash. The justices could ask the two sides to file supplemental briefs or could simply hold the case to see how other legal skirmishes play out.

Republican opponents have suggested in a separate legal fight, now pending at a New Orleans-based federal appeals court, that they they will challenge the latest Biden move.

The Supreme Court case is Arizona v. Mayorkas, 22-592.

(Adds in fourth paragraph that court gave no explanation.)

--With assistance from Ellen M. Gilmer and Jordan Fabian.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Elizabeth Wasserman at ewasserman2@bloomberg.net

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