The Supreme Court’s Title 42 Decision

Recently,  in a 5-4 decision on Tuesday, the high court granted the states’ request to temporarily block and expedite its review of a lower court ruling that ordered the Biden administration to end Title 42.

The rule, first put in place at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, has allowed border officials to skip asylum processing and quickly expel migrants. Title 42’s end is largely expected to create a surge of migrants at America’s southern border.

“The States may question whether the government followed the right administrative steps before issuing this decision (an issue on which I express no view),” Gorsuch said in his dissent. “But they do not seriously dispute that the public-health justification undergirding the Title 42 orders has lapsed.”

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch formed an unlikely alliance with the high court’s three liberal justices on Tuesday in breaking with the majority’s decision to temporarily keep the Title 42 border policy in place.

“The current border crisis is not a COVID crisis,” Gorsuch said in his dissent, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.  “Courts should not be in the business of perpetuating administrative edicts designed for one emergency only because elected officials have failed to address a different emergency,” he added. “We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort.”  Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch and Jackson are an odd pairing. However, their dissent in yesterday’s case relating to Title 42 and border issues, makes an important point:

Is that not the truth.

Elected officials need to do their jobs. What is happening at the southern border is a textbook example, but there are many others.  Not doing your job by effectively legislating and making others do your job - like the court system - is not healthy. The last 100 years of American history have almost too many examples to list.  

This is the problem with almost any work place.  At Winslow Law we have two primary rules for our team:

1. If you say you are going to do it - DO IT.
2. If you say you are going to be there - BE THERE.

People are counting on you - your community, co-workers, clients all counting on you.  You can make excuses or find solutions, but you can not do both.  For too long our legislature has worried more about fundraising and being reelected than actually doing their job.  That means others have to try to do their job for them. 

That is not their job.  Courts adjudicate disputes. At least that’s the way it should be. Courts are not some sort of fill in the gap legislature or ultra executive. It’s dangerous when they are thrust into such roles.  That is not their job - they lose the balance that Lady Justice is supposed to hold.  It turns into a role of advocacy and leads to a lack of respect for the Court.

It’s time for elected officials, both legislative and executive, to do what they were elected to do.  Represent us - be UNITED in this Country - and if you say you are going to do it - DO IT!

Is that too much to ask for the people who have the power to give themselves raises by using the money we pay in taxes?

COMMITTED COUNSELORS FOR OUR CLIENTS AND OUR COMMUNITY.

Written by

Tom Winslow

and

JULIA SHAPERO

Distributed by Winslow Law, LLC