President Barack Obama’s Immigration executive action suffered a big blow today when the US Supreme Court refused to uphold his action. The US Court announced that it was evenly split 4-4 on the matter. Recall that after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February reduced the number of Supreme Court justices to eight.
It was a one-paragraph ruling, issued without comments or dissent but enough to block the programs from going into effect. The matter now goes back to the lower court. It is also unlikely the programs will go into effect before Obama leaves office.
Obama speaking at the white house immediately criticised the split decision as frustrating.
“For more than two decades now our immigration system, everybody acknowledges, has been broken,” Obama said. “And the fact that the Supreme Court wasn’t able to issue a decision today doesn’t just set the system back even further, it takes us further from the country that we aspire to be.”
Democratic Presidential candidate, Hilary Clinton first said in reaction that “today’s deadlocked decision from the Supreme Court is unacceptable, and show us all just how high the stakes are in this election.” She later tweeted: “Today’s heartbreaking immigration ruling could tear apart 5 million families facing deportation. We must do better.”
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