The Supreme Court on Monday made it more difficult for federal courts to review the factual determinations that can lead to the removal of noncitizens.
The Supreme Court on Monday made it more difficult for federal courts to review the factual determinations that can lead to the deportation of noncitizens. The technical ruling split the court 5 to 4, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett writing the majority opinion and fellow conservative Justice Neil M. Gorsuch joining liberal justices in dissent. Barrett and the majority went further than the federal government had advocated. She said that while Congress had granted the attorney general “room for mercy” in providing relief to those who had entered the country illegally, it was different for judicial intervention.
“Federal courts have a very limited role to play in this process,” wrote Barrett. “With an exception for legal and constitutional questions, Congress has barred judicial review of the attorney general’s decisions denying discretionary relief from removal. We must decide how far this bar extends — specifically, whether it precludes judicial review of factual findings that underlie a denial of relief. It does.”
Barrett was joined by Chief Justice John G.
