Chief Justice Roberts Explains DIG of Public Charge Case
Today the Supreme Court dismissed as improvidently granted (a.k.a. DIGged) Arizona v. City and County of San Francisco. This case concerned challenges to the Trump Administration’s “public charge” rule, which limited immigrant eligibility to certain social welfare programs.
The precise question presented was whether states (or others) could intervene to defend a rule from the prior Administration when the new Administration decides not to. This is an important question, but the Court apparently decided this case was not a good vehicle in which to decide it.
DIGs are not usually explained, but in this case, the Chief Justice authored a short concurrence, joined by Justices Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch. It’s reproduced below.
This case involves a regulation known as the Public Charge Rule, promulgated by the Department of Homeland Security in 2019. See 84 Fed. Reg. 41292 (2019). The Rule set out the test the Department planned to use to determine whether an applicant for admission into the country or adjustment to lawful permanent resident status is “likely at any time to become a public charge,” which would make him ineligible. 8 U. S. C. §1182(a)(4)(A). Several parties filed lawsuits arguing that the Rule was unlawful because it defined “public charge” too broadly.
We granted certiorari in this case not to address the merits of that argument, but to decide w
Article from Reason.com
