Today, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of Univ. of California, rejected the Trump Administration’s attempt to end the DACA program. ASAHP, along with 33 other national health professions organizations, submitted an Amicus Brief to the Court in support of preserving DACA.
The opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, declared that the Court was not deciding whether DACA was a sound policy, as it was within the rights of the Administration to terminate the DACA program, which was created by Executive Order during the Obama Administration. Instead, the Court only looked at “whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action”.
It found the process utilized by the Administration had been done in an “arbitrary and capricious” way, and had not made its decision “based on a consideration of the relevant factors and whether there has been a clear error of judgment, in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act”.
As a result of this decision, DACA will continue to remain intact. However, the Administration has the option of going back through the process of eliminating DACA once again, but needs to offer a sound rationale when doing so – which it had not done this time.
A terrific analysis of this decision can be found by noted Supreme Court scholar Amy Howe of Scotusblog here.