Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Biden Administration Immigration Guidelines, Setting Precedent for Future Legal Challenges.

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that Texas and Louisiana do not have standing to challenge Biden administration immigration guidelines, a surprising win for the administration from a Court that has been very hostile to executive branch agencies.

The Supreme Court’s ruling clears the way for the Biden administration to reinstate rules that instruct Immigration and Customs Enforcement to focus its deportation efforts in the U.S. interior on immigrants with serious criminal convictions and those deemed to threaten national security.

The two states had challenged the Secretary of Homeland Security’s guidance that prioritizes certain undocumented immigrants for arrest and removal, including those suspected of terrorist activity. The court found that Texas and Louisiana lacked standing to bring the suit, known as United States v. Texas.

The government argued that letting states sue on such an indirect basis would let them “challenge virtually any federal policy by leveraging even a dollar’s worth of […]They claimed that they may have to pay extra costs downstream from that guidance, a result of potentially having to detain immigrants or provide them with services.

The Supreme Court’s ruling is a major victory for the Biden administration, as it allows them to move forward with their immigration policies. The ruling also sets a precedent that states cannot challenge federal policies on the basis of potential downstream costs. This ruling is likely to have a major impact on future legal challenges to federal policies.