Supreme Court refuses to hear arguments on Title 42

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said it will not hear March 1 arguments as scheduled in a case involving a Trump-era immigration policy used millions of times over the past three years to quickly turn back migrants at the border.

Magistrates in the court on Thursday removed from their schedule the Title 42 case, which justified the rapid deportation of migrants on public health grounds. A court spokeswoman did not give details and the case was not dismissed.

The court’s decision follows a document submitted by the Biden government that the case will soon be out of the picture.

Government lawyers pointed to President Joe Biden’s recent announcement that emergency declarations related to the COVID-19 pandemic will end on May 11.

The government has said the end of the public health emergency also means the end of Title 42.

Republicans and even some Democrats in border states have opposed Biden’s actions to end the Title 42 policy. They say the United States is unprepared for the expected arrival of people at the border with Mexico. after the end of the Title 42 policy.

In December, court ministers were sharply divided when they agreed to prevent the end of the policy under a judge’s order and left the matter for debate.

Five ministers agreed to do so and four disagreed, say the three Liberals and Conservative Neil Gorsuch.

The case itself involved the ability of states to intervene in a policy-related lawsuit.

The policy dates back to March 2020, when, under pressure from the White House, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an order restricting migration to the country’s borders with Mexico and Canada on the grounds that it was necessary to reduce the spread of the virus.

According to the order, the facilities where the migrants are held were not designed to keep people in quarantine or allow for healthy distancing.

The authority for that order came from Title 42 of the Public Health Services Act, which gives federal health officials extraordinary powers during a pandemic to limit the transmission of an infectious disease.

Authorities have returned asylum seekers to the United States 2.5 million times under Title 42.