The Supreme Court canceled March 1 oral arguments in a case challenging the Title 42 emergency policy soon after the Justice Department said the case would soon become moot.
Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that has helped the government expel over 2 million illegal immigrants, is slated to expire on May 11 when the COVID-19 emergency ends. Several Republican-led states sued last year to keep the policy in place out of concern that an influx of illegal immigrants would flood the southern border.
TITLE 42 SUPREME COURT CASE WILL BE MOOT AFTER COVID EMERGENCY ENDS: DOJ
The DOJ issued a 48-page brief earlier this month saying that the case, Arizona v. Mayorkas, would become moot once the pandemic emergency ends.
JUST IN: The Supreme Court cancels the March 1 oral argument in Arizona v. Mayorkas, involving the Title 42 immigration policy. The government recently told the justices that the case may become moot on May 11 because the policy will expire when the COVID emergency formally ends.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) February 16, 2023
“The government has also recently announced its intent to adopt new Title 8 policies to address the situation at the border once the Title 42 orders end,” the DOJ brief added.
The oral argument date was removed from the Supreme Court calendar on Thursday without explanation. Additionally, the case is still listed as pending but may become moot given the DOJ’s argument in its most recent brief.
The decision also did not appear to lift a previous stay applied to a lower court judge’s order striking down the policy, indicating that Title 42 will remain in effect until May 11.
President Joe Biden had kept Title 42 in place after taking office in 2021 despite criticism from within his own party to ditch the Trump-era policy.
The court agreed in December to determine whether Republican state attorneys general could intervene to defend Title 42 after U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan in November ruled the public health order was unlawful, siding with asylum-seeking migrant plaintiffs.
By a 5-4 vote, the Republican-appointed majority Supreme Court kept Title 42 in place and put Sullivan’s decision on hold.
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The Biden administration attempted to remove Title 42 last year after U.S. health officials said it was no longer needed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Those efforts were stifled by a federal judge in Louisiana that kept Title 42 in place.
As the March 1 oral arguments over the dispute approached, Biden announced late last month that he would end the public health emergency that was enacted in conjunction with the pandemic in early 2020 during former President Donald Trump’s administration.
