Judges are 'not appointed to make' immigration policy decisions: Kavanaugh

Justice Brett Kavanaugh warned judges Monday that the role of the judiciary in immigration legal disputes is not to set policy, sending the Supreme Court‘s latest warning to lower courts via its emergency docket.

Kavanaugh’s comments came in a concurrence of a 6-3 order lifting restrictions that a federal district court in California placed on federal authorities’ ability to conduct immigration operations in the Los Angeles area. The justice told lower-court judges that their role is only to ensure immigration policies and procedures are lawful and constitutional, rather than to weigh in with their own preferred policies.