Biden administration tells Supreme Court Title 42 will end when Covid-19 public health emergency expires

By Priscilla Alvarez and Ariane de Vogue, CNN

The Biden administration told the Supreme Court Tuesday that its intent to let the coronavirus public health emergency expire in May will moot the ongoing case over a Trump-era border restriction.

“Absent other relevant developments, the end of the public health emergency will (among other consequences) terminate the Title 42 orders and moot this case. The government has also recently announced its intent to adopt new Title 8 policies to address the situation at the border once the Title 42 orders end,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in a filing submitted to the high court.

The Trump administration invoked Title 42 at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The public health authority allows border officials to turn away migrants encountered at the US-Mexico border in the name of Covid-19 prevention.

Title 42 has been the subject of ongoing litigation amid efforts to end the authority.

Last year, Republican-led states, which had already filed suit in a separate court, requested to intervene in a case, arguing that the program should be left in place. The Supreme Court agreed to leave the program in effect and said it would hear arguments on March 1 on whether the GOP-led states can intervene. The administration’s brief was filed in advance of those scheduled arguments, which could potentially be impacted.

“The anticipated end of the public health emergency on May 11, and the resulting expiration of the operative Title 42 order, would render this case moot: Because the Title 42 order would have ‘expired by its own terms,’ this suit seeking only prospective relief would ‘no longer present a “live case or controversy,'” the filing states.

“In that event, the government will ask the court of appeals to vacate the district court’s judgment and remand with instructions to dismiss private respondents’ suit as moot,” it continues.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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