Supreme Court makes it more difficult to challenge immigration policies in court

By Tierney Sneed, CNN

The Supreme Court on Monday made it much more difficult for immigrants to challenge immigration policies in court, holding that challenges have to be brought individually and not on a class-wide basis.

In the 6-3 holding, the court concluded that, under a 1996 statute, lower federal courts lack the power to grant injunctive relief to entire classes of immigrants, as opposed to individual immigrants suing one at a time, that would bar immigration officials from carrying out certain policies.

Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito pointed to the language in the relevant laws and said that, taken together, that language “generally prohibits lower courts from entering injunctions that order federal officials to take or to refrain from taking actions to enforce, implement, or otherwise carry out the specified statutory provisions.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a partial dissent, joined in part by Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer.

Sotomayor said that the majority opinion “elevates piecemeal dictionary definitions and policy concerns over plain meaning and context.”

“I respectfully dissent from the Court’s blinkered analysis, which will leave many vulnerable noncitizens unable to protect their rights,” she wrote. The three justices, however, noted they thought the government should nevertheless prevail in the case but not for the reasons in the majority opinion.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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