Supreme Court keeps Title 42 immigration policy in place for now

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed immigration policy Title 42 to remain in effect while legal challenges play out, letting federal officials to continue expulsions of undocumented migrants under the Trump-era policy.

By a 5-4 vote, the justices agreed to decide later this term on whether several Republican-led states should be allowed to intervene in defense of the policy after lower courts ruled Title 42 could come end. The high court order imposed by Chief Justice John Roberts keeps the border policy, which allows swift expulsions of migrants, in place while litigation goes forward.

Notably, Justice Neil Gorsuch, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, led the dissent that was joined by the court's three liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.

"The States may question whether the government followed the right administrative steps before issuing this decision (an issue on which I express no view). But they do not seriously dispute that the public-health justification undergirding the Title 42 orders has lapsed. And it is hardly obvious why we should rush in to review a ruling on a motion to intervene in a case concerning emergency decrees that have outlived their shelf life," Gorsuch wrote.