June 24, 2016 7:23 PM

Smith: The SCOTUS Immigration Ruling: A Kafkaesque Conclusion to the Battle Over DAPA and DACA

From the Left: QR’s Liberal Columnist Glenn W. Smith argues that the U.S. Supreme Court deadlock over lower court rulings that Texas and other states would “probably” prevail on the merits give a strange, phantom-like cast to the outcome.

Taken together, this week’s U.S. Supreme Court decisions in two cases originating in Texas seem to say, “No worries that the University of Texas admissions policy can consider race because we’re going to deport one million Texas Hispanics anyway.”

We refer of course to the court’s deadlocked vote letting stand a lower court’s rejection of President Obama’s memorandum to immigration authorities. The President’s memo asked that they defer action on the possible deportation of four million undocumented immigrant children and their parents. Texas and other Republican-controlled state governments called this “executive overreach.”

The other case is the zombie litigation involving UT admissions policy that includes some consideration of the race of applicants. It only seems like generations have graduated from the UT School of Law since rejected applicant Abigail Fisher first brought the suit. The Court upheld the affirmative action policy.

The full column by Glenn W. Smith is in the R&D Department.

By Glenn W. Smith