Supreme Court Hands Obama Small But Important Win In Immigration Fight
Source: Huff Post.
It looks like President Barack Obama may get a chance to defend his immigration policies in court before he leaves office.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday granted a request from the federal government that essentially secures timely consideration of Obama's executive actions on immigration -- raising the likelihood that the justices will hear the case in the spring and decide it by the end of June, when their current term ends.
Since the administration filed its appeal of the case to the Supreme Court in late November, Texas and U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli had been embroiled in a procedural tussle over timing. Texas, the lead plaintiff in 26 states' suit against the executive actions Obama announced last year, had been seeking to delay consideration of the appeal, while Verrilli argued that a delay was unwarranted.
Supreme Court clerk Scott Harris said Tuesday in a notice to lawyers for the parties that Texas would have until Dec. 29 to respond to the administration's appeal. This effectively puts the dispute on track to be considered at the justices' Jan. 15, 2016, conference.
If the court agrees to hear the case following the conference, its rules would allow briefing to take place in February and March and oral arguments in April. A ruling would likely come down in June -- several months before the presidential election.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/supreme-court-obama-immigration_5655e236e4b072e9d1c15ea5?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000016§ion=politics