Supreme Court denies Trump administration request to immediately enforce new asylum rules

By Robert Barnes December 21 at 2:54 PM

The Supreme Court on Friday denied the Trump administration’s request that it be allowed to immediately enforce a new policy of denying asylum to those who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border, a change that lower courts declared possibly illegal.

Four justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh — would have granted the administration’s request to let the order go into effect.

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit earlier this month kept in place a lower court decision that stopped the policy’s implementation, saying it was simply a way around specific language in federal law that allows all who enter the United States, regardless of where, to apply for asylum.

“Just as we may not, as we are often reminded, ‘legislate from the bench,’ neither may the Executive legislate from the Oval Office,” wrote Circuit Judge Jay S. Bybee, a conservative nominated by President George W. Bush, in the 2 to 1 decision.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-denies-trump-administration-request-to-immediately-enforce-new-asylum-rules/2018/12/21/e9cdaf32-03c8-11e9-b6a9-0aa5c2fcc9e4_story.html