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A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with a group of mostly Republican-led states and ordered the pandemic-era public health protocol known as Title 42 — which started in the early days of COVID-19 and allows the expulsion of migrants at the border — to remain in place pending a hearing before the justices.
The 5-4 decision reverses lower court decisions that Title 42 had to end in December and means that the policy will remain in effect until a final ruling.
The Supreme Court scheduled oral arguments on the appeal for February but said in a statement that „the stay itself does not prevent the federal government from taking any action with respect to that policy.“
In other words, in the court’s view, the Biden administration still has the power and prerogative to discontinue the policy on its own if it so chooses.
The court said it was preparing to examine a narrow, procedural question unrelated to the merits of Title 42 itself: whether the states challenging the policy may intervene to challenge the district court’s summary judgment order.
