Conservative appointee, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. joined the U.S. Supreme Court’s liberal wing Friday in refusing to block a California judge’s ruling against enforcement of new policies that restrict asylum-seekers along the southern border.
Roberts Aligns With Liberal Wing in Ruling Against Trump's Asylum Ban
"The high court, voting 5-4, left in place a ruling from U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco that enjoined the Trump administration from enforcing the new asylum policies. Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito Jr., Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas voted to grant the Justice Department’s request to stay the ruling.
The Justice Department had urged the Supreme Court to halt Tigar’s nationwide injunction, saying the administration’s new rules, limiting entry to designated ports, were crafted to confront a “crisis at the southern border.”
Tigar on Wednesday issued a preliminary injunction against the new rules, replacing a temporary restraining order that he first issued on Nov. 19. Tigar found the new regulations “inconsistent with the will of Congress as expressed in the United States’ immigration statutes.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Dec. 7 upheld the temporary restraining order. “Just as we may not, as we are often reminded, ‘legislate from the bench,’ neither may the Executive legislate from the Oval Office,” Ninth Circuit Judge Jay Bybee wrote for the panel this month. " READ MORE
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Glover Roberts Jr. was born on January 27, 1955 in Buffalo, New York. Roberts grew up in Long Beach, Indiana and attended Harvard Law School. He served on U.S Court of Appeals for two years before being confirmed as Chief Justice of the United States in 2005. In June 2015 Roberts ruled on two landmark legislative cases: He reaffirmed the legality of Obamacare, by siding with the liberal wing of the Court, along with swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy. However, he held to his conservative views on the issue of gay marriage and voted against the Court's decision that made same sex marriage legal in all 50 states.
