Justice Sonia Sotomayor: Supreme Court ‘putting a thumb on the scale’ for Trump

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Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she is concerned the Supreme Court is going out of its way to help the Trump administration.

The high court voted along ideological lines on Friday to grant the Trump administration’s demand for an emergency request to stay an injunction in an Illinois case regarding the restriction of low-income immigrants from entering the United States. Sotomayor wrote in an opinion that her conservative colleagues on the Supreme Court, who have the majority, are “putting a thumb on the scale in favor of” the Trump administration.

“It is hard to say what is more troubling,” Sotomayor wrote on Friday. “That the government would seek this extraordinary relief seemingly as a matter of course, or that the Court would grant it.”

The Supreme Court’s decision in Wolf v. Cook County will likely impact millions of immigrants. The case stems from a policy the Trump administration announced in August. The policy would essentially allow the U.S. government to turn away immigrants who are more likely to rely on government-assisted programs.

Two lower courts ruled against the proposed change — one of those decisions blocked the rule across the country, while the other one blocked it only in the state of Illinois. By a 5-to-4 vote last month, also along ideological lines, the Supreme Court reversed an injunction imposed by a judge that blocked the changes nationwide.

Friday’s ruling dissolved the Illinois-specific interference, so the policy could now go into effect while the matter continues its way through the court system.

Sotomayor, an Obama appointee, criticized what she described as a troubling pattern of the conservative justices ruling in favor of the Trump administration without looking at these cases in an objective manner.

“Today’s decision follows a now-familiar pattern,” she wrote. “The Government seeks emergency relief from this Court, asking it to grant a stay where two lower courts have not. The Government insists — even though review in a court of appeals is imminent — that it will suffer irreparable harm if this Court does not grant a stay. And the Court yields.”

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