UPDATE: Trump says ‘new justices needed’ after Supreme Court’s DACA ruling
President Donald Trump reacted angrily to Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that his administration acted illegally when it ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA).
The court, in a 5-4 vote, rejected Trump's effort to end legal protections for 650,000 young immigrants, a rebuke to the president in the midst of his reelection campaign.
The justices rejected administration arguments that the 8-year-old program is illegal and that courts have no role to play in reviewing the decision to end DACA.
The recent Supreme Court decisions, not only on DACA, Sanctuary Cities, Census, and others, tell you only one thing, we need NEW JUSTICES of the Supreme Court. If the Radical Left Democrats assume power, your Second Amendment, Right to Life, Secure Borders, and...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020
...Religious Liberty, among many other things, are OVER and GONE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court that the administration did not pursue the end of the program properly.
"We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies," Roberts wrote. "We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action. Here the agency failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance and what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients."
Reaction to the news was immediate on social media, including from former President Barack Obama, whose administration authored the program.
Eight years ago this week, we protected young people who were raised as part of our American family from deportation. Today, I'm happy for them, their families, and all of us. We may look different and come from everywhere, but what makes us American are our shared ideals…
— (@BarackObama)Jun 18 2020
The outcome seems certain to elevate the issue in Trump's campaign, given the anti-immigrant rhetoric of his first presidential run in 2016 and immigration restrictions his administration has imposed since then.
Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn’t like me?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020
These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives. We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020
#DACA was one of Twitter’s top trending stories when the court’s decision was announced.
I literally cried tears of joy when I heard the DACA decision.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) June 18, 2020
The wonderful young Dreamers and their families have a huge burden lifted off their shoulders.
One day they will become American citizens. https://t.co/exh0OIlniJ
JOHN ROBERTS NEEDS TO BE KICKED OFF THE SUPREME COURT!
— DeAnna Lorraine 🇺🇸 (@DeAnna4Congress) June 18, 2020
DACA is NOT constitutional!
This guy is totally compromised!
Wow!!!!!! I cannot hold back the tears of joy I feel for all of the young people in our country who have been petrified and can now breath a sigh of enormous relief. Supreme Court rules Trump administration illegally ended DACA https://t.co/XpP5eW55CO
— Valerie Jarrett (@ValerieJarrett) June 18, 2020
I’m sure conservatives will be furious at Roberts, but on both DACA and LGBT protections the Court is basically saving Republicans from deeply unpopular policy positions.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) June 18, 2020
We are very pleased at the #SCOTUS DACA decision. The hardworking young immigrants needed this relief so much. We now hope that @SenatorDurbin will lift his hold on #S386 which helps our children who cannot get #DACA
— Immigration Voice (@immivoice) June 18, 2020
Roberts was joined in the opinion by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined the majority in all but one part, and filed an opinion as well.
In his dissent in the SCOTUS DACA case Justice Thomas says The decision is “An effort to avoid a politically controversial but legally correct decision.” pic.twitter.com/kFvWt4f2BH
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 18, 2020
Justice Clarence Thomas also filed an opinion, concurring and dissenting in part, joined by Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch. Justice Brett Kavanaugh filed an opinion concurring and dissenting in part.
The high court heard arguments last fall.
How the court ruled in the DACA case https://t.co/Ir7EbMuzBx pic.twitter.com/37y5WMf8o5
— NYT Graphics (@nytgraphics) June 18, 2020
The program grew out of an impasse over a comprehensive immigration bill between Congress and the Obama administration in 2012. President Barack Obama decided to formally protect people from deportation while also allowing them to work legally in the U.S.
But Trump made tough talk on immigration a central part of his campaign and less than eight months after taking office, he announced in September 2017 that he would end DACA.
Immigrants, civil rights groups, universities and Democratic-led states quickly sued, and courts put the administration’s plan on hold.
But DACA was never presented as a permanent solution for these young people or to the status of the millions of undocumented people who are here, contributing to, and embedded in, our communities, yet still in a legal shadow.
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) June 18, 2020
Congress needs to act to address these issues. https://t.co/OCBCXkyOQY
The Department of Homeland Security has continued to process two-year DACA renewals so that hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients have protections stretching beyond the election and even into 2022.
The Supreme Court fight over DACA played out in a kind of legal slow motion. The administration first wanted the justices to hear and decide the case by June 2018. The justices said no. The Justice Department returned to the court later in 2018, but the justices did nothing for more than seven months before agreeing a year ago to hear arguments. Those took place in November and more than seven months elapsed before the court’s decision.
Thursday's ruling was the second time in two years that Roberts and the liberal justices faulted the administration for the way it went about a policy change. Last year, the court forced the administration to back off a citizenship question on the 2020 census.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
