Divided US appeals court blocks enforcement of Texas state immigration law

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Reuters

July 4, 2025 11:50 AM EDT Updated 6 mins ago


July 4 (Reuters) - Texas authorities may not enforce a Republican-backed state law that would let them arrest and prosecute people suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, a divided federal appeals court ruled late Thursday. A 2-1 panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction that blocked enforcement of the disputed law, which former Democratic President Joe Biden's administration had gone to court to challenge.

Republican President Donald Trump's administration dropped the federal government's case, but Texas's law known as SB4 had continued to be challenged by, among others, the immigrant rights group Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, which argued federal law preempted the state's.

The law, which Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed in December 2023, would make it a state crime to illegally enter or re-enter Texas from a foreign country and would empower state judges to order that violators leave the United States, with prison sentences up to 20 years for those who refuse to comply. U.S. Circuit Judge Priscilla Richman, writing for the New Orleans-based court's majority, said that for nearly 150 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that the power to control immigration was exclusively a federal power.

Relying on a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down parts of an Arizona immigration law, she said the Texas law, if allowed to be enforced by the Texas Department of Public Safety, would interfere with the federal government's ability to enforce complex U.S. immigration laws. The state did not respond to requests for comment.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/divided-us-appeals-court-blocks-enforcement-texas-state-immigration-law-2025-07-04/

---

Link to RULING (PDF) - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/dwpkldkobvm/sb4.pdf

REFERENCES

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143169707
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143170157
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143194811
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143211317
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143212222
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143218943

[ananda]

1. Wow, that was the 5th Circuit.

They usually rubber stamp every horrible
Republican law.

[Skittles]

2. maybe the concentration camps are waking some folk up to the fascism

we can only hope SOME repukes don't approve

[onenote]

3. Three judge panel. The two in the majority were a GWBush and a Biden appointee. The dissenter was a Trumper

named Andrew Oldham. And a big-time Trumper at that. He was confirmed by strict party line 50-49 vote back in 2018. He's a nasty piece of work who clerked on the Supreme Court for Alito and served as General Counsel to Texas governor Greg Abbott.

He's only in his 40s and has been mentioned as a potential Trump SCOTUS nominee should a vacancy arise. George Will slobbered all over him in a column praising him for his opinion in COnsumer's Research v. FCC, which is pretty amusing in retrospect since the Supreme Court just reversed him in that case with a 6-3 vote - Barrett, Kavanaugh and Roberts joining Kagan, Sotomayor and Jackson in the majority.