• SCOTUS granted a request that secures timely consideration for the Executive Action raising the likelihood the case will be heard in the spring and a decision by the end of June; just a few months before the Presidential election .
• When the Executive Action changes was announced last year, several states filed an injunction against DAPA and has since then been stopped.
• Twenty-six states are involved and Texas is the lead plaintiff.

Raw Transcript:

Jacob: Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Ask an Immigration Lawyer. You ask, we answer. This is your host, Jacob Sapochnick.

I wanted to cover one quick topic today. This is something that was announced earlier this week, a couple of days ago. The US Supreme Court on Tuesday granted a request from the Federal Government that essentially secures timely consideration of President Obama’s Executive Action on immigration and raising the likelihood that the justices will hear the case in the spring and decided by the end of June when the current term ends.

So just to give you a little background. If you remember when President Obama announced the Executive Action changes last year, one of the things they were talking about was giving Deferred Action which is some sort of legal status and a work permit for parents who are undocumented of US citizen children who are living in the US — also known as DAPA. What happened is that after it was announced, several states filed an injunction against the implementation of DAPA and since then it was stopped.

Again, since the administration filed its appeal of the case to Supreme Court in late November of last year, Texas and the US Solicitor General Donald Verrilli had embroiled in [persecutional 00:01:27] tussle over timing. Texas, which is the lead plaintiff in 26 states, lawsuit against the Executive Actions of the President announced last year and have been seeking to delay consideration of this appeal. This Supreme Court decision is cool because it means that hopefully there’s going to be some sort of a decision on this issue of DAPA by the spring of 2016.

Again, if the court agrees to hear the case, its rule would allow briefing to take place probably in February, even in March, and oral arguments in April, and probably the final ruling is going to come down in June — just a few months before the Presidential election.

We are very hopeful; very, very hopeful that it’s a big victory for President Obama. If this happens, people who are kind of in the limbo waiting for this are going to know very soon what’s going to happen with some of this Executive Action. Things that were put on hold because of that lawsuit by these 26 states lead by Texas.

Thanks for listening. Hopefully that gives you some hope. You ask, we answer. This is Jacob, your host, and we’ll see you at our next episode.