Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor issues excoriating dissent and says Republican-appointed justices are BIASED towards Trump after Green Card discrimination ruling
- Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissents from Supreme Court ruling on Friday allowing Trump administration to change so-called 'public charge' rule
- Court lifted injunction against new immigration policy denying green cards to immigrants likely to use benefits like Medicaid, food stamps, and vouchers
- Trump administration has dramatically expanded the criteria for deciding who is or will become a public charge
- The ruling was similar to a decision last month by the Court, which also lifted a nationwide injunction imposed by a federal judge in New York
- Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene 24 times on an emergency basis after it suffered defeats in lower courts
Liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor blasted the Trump administration as well as her conservative colleagues on the bench after they okayed banning green cards for those who make use of food stamps, Medicaid, or housing vouchers.
In a 5-to-4 ruling on Friday, the Court's conservative majority allowed the administration's 'wealth test' for would-be immigrants to go into effect while appeals wind their way through the legal system.
The ruling was similar to the one handed down by the high court last month, which was appealed by the administration after a federal judge in New York issued a nationwide injunction.
Friday's ruling by the Supreme Court lifted a limited injunction that applied only to Illinois.
Sotomayor, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, criticized the Trump administration for asking the Supreme Court to rule on its policies by claiming they were emergencies.
![Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Friday wrote a harsh dissent accusing the conservative justices on the bench of being too eager to help the Trump administration circumvent the appellate process. Sotomayor is seen above in New York in May 2019](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/02/23/23/25100410-8035845-image-a-14_1582499670091.jpg)
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Friday wrote a harsh dissent accusing the conservative justices on the bench of being too eager to help the Trump administration circumvent the appellate process. Sotomayor is seen above in New York in May 2019
![The Trump administration on Friday was given the go-ahead by the Court to deny green cards to those who are thought likely to make use of public benefits like Medicaid, food stamps, and vouchers. President Trump is seen above on Sunday at the White House](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/02/23/23/25100414-8035845-image-a-15_1582499713366.jpg)
The Trump administration on Friday was given the go-ahead by the Court to deny green cards to those who are thought likely to make use of public benefits like Medicaid, food stamps, and vouchers. President Trump is seen above on Sunday at the White House
The emergency applications by the administration are meant to circumvent 'the normal appellate process' while 'putting a thumb on the scale in favor of the party that won,' Sotomayor wrote in her dissent.
Sotomayor accused the conservative justices of granting preferential treatment to the administration, saying that 'most troublingly, the Court's recent behavior' has benefited 'one litigant over all others.'
The other three liberals on the bench - Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan - also dissented, but did not join Sotomayor's opinion.
'Claiming one emergency after another, the Government has recently sought stays in an unprecedented number of cases,' Sotomayor said.
'It is hard to say what is more troubling - that the Government would seek this extraordinary relief seemingly as a matter of course, or that the Court would grant it.'
The administration, for its part, has argued that it has sought emergency rulings because the lower appellate courts are issuing broad preliminary injunctions that apply to states that weren't a party to the original lawsuit.
The ruling on the so-called 'public charge' rule will take effect on Monday while the case winds its way through the court system.
The new policy significantly expands what factors would be considered to make that determination, and if it is decided that immigrants could potentially become public charges later, that legal residency could be denied.
Under the old rules, people who used non-cash benefits, including food stamps and Medicaid, were not considered public charges.
'This final rule will protect hardworking American taxpayers, safeguard welfare programs for truly needy Americans, reduce the Federal deficit, and re-establish the fundamental legal principle that newcomers to our society should be financially self-reliant and not dependent on the largess(e) of United States taxpayers,' the White House said in a statement Saturday.
Sotomayor said that the conservative justices have helped the Trump administration, causing a 'breakdown in the appellate process.
She wrote that it was part of a 'now-familiar pattern.'
'The government seeks emergency relief from this Court' [after the lower courts decline to approve its rulings] and the high court 'has been all too quick to grant the government's reflexive requests.'
Sotomayor accused the conservative justices of being more eager to intervene on behalf of the Trump administration than inmates on death row.
'The Court often permits executions - where the risk of irreparable harm is the loss of life - to proceed, justifying many of those decisions on purported failures to 'raise any potentially meritorious claims in a timely manner',' she wrote.
'I fear that this disparity in treatment erodes the fair and balanced decision-making process that this Court must strive to protect.'
The public charge case is the 24th instance in which the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to lift an injunction issued by a lower court.
In contrast, the Obama and George W. Bush administrations did so a combined eight times, according to CNN.
Last month, Justice Neil Gorsuch, the conservative judge appointed by Trump, issued a concurrence explaining the court's ruling.
In voting to lift the nationwide injunction, Gorsuch issued an opinion criticizing lower courts' 'increasingly common' use of nationwide injunctions to halt government policies. Gorsuch urged the court to confront the issue.
'What in this gamesmanship and chaos can we be proud of?' Gorsuch asked.
![Sotomayor and the other three liberals dissented - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan. The justices are seen counterclockwise from top left: Neil Gorsuch, Sotomayor, Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, Ginsburg, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, and Breyer](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/02/23/23/25100462-8035845-image-a-16_1582499716491.jpg)
Sotomayor and the other three liberals dissented - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan. The justices are seen counterclockwise from top left: Neil Gorsuch, Sotomayor, Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, Ginsburg, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, and Breyer
'It has become increasingly apparent that this court must, at some point, confront these important objections to this increasingly widespread practice,' Justice Gorsuch wrote.
'As the brief and furious history of the regulation before us illustrates, the routine issuance of universal injunctions is patently unworkable, sowing chaos for litigants, the government, courts, and all those affected by these conflicting decisions.'
'I concur in the court's decision to issue a stay,' Justice Gorsuch continued.
'But I hope, too, that we might at an appropriate juncture take up some of the underlying equitable and constitutional questions raised by the rise of nationwide injunctions.'
Two other federal appeals courts previously lifted nationwide injunctions ordered by lower courts blocking the rule.
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