A federal appeals court again blocks Texas SB4
Fernanda Gonzalez
An attorney says an improper procedure by a federal appeals court led the U.S. Supreme Court to temporarily enforce Senate Bill 4 and send the case back to it, blocking the law again.
Texas Solicitor General Aaron Nielson spoke in front of a panel of judges during a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals hearing Wednesday, where he explained SB 4 allows a law enforcement agent to arrest individuals suspected of illegally crossing the Texas-Mexico border.
Nielson said individuals would be taken to the port of entry, as a legal and practical matter, resulting in the U.S having custody of the person.
A federal district judge issued a preliminary injunction to block the law from going into effect March 5 after the U.S government and the ACLU filed lawsuits against it.
After the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on the district judge’s ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the law to go into effect Tuesday and sent the case back to the appeals court.
Lecturer I and Attorney Jaime Peña said the reason the case went back to the lower court is because the 5th Circuit issued an administrative stay, which is a temporary pause that allows judges to dictate a ruling.
Peña said the U.S appealed to the Supreme Court, alleging a stay pending appeal should be issued, which is a court order that suspends for a period of time the proceedings of a judgment.
“So, the Supreme Court rendered the decision not on the law, not on anything else other than was that a proper procedure,” he said. “And the Supreme Court said that was an improper procedure and that’s how they … undid that 5th Circuit’s stay. And then it kicked it back, so they just said that the procedure was done wrong, so now it’s back in front of the 5th Circuit.”
A judge on the appeals panel asked Nielson how SB 4 would work after taking an individual to Brownsville and Border Patrol rereleasing them back into Texas. Nielson replied part of the problem is the pre-enforcement.
“So, I’m not entirely sure how the Texas courts would interpret the provision,” he said.
UTRGV Assistant Professor of Political Science Andrew Smith said SB 4 is vaguely written.
“It’s chaos and I think it’s going to come down a lot to local police departments,” Smith said. “And I think it is Crawford … or something like that, they said, ‘We’ll enforce it as best as we can, but we really don’t understand what this law is.’”
Assistant Professor of Political Science Alvaro Corral said Nielson had no knowledge of the bill’s enforcement in Texas.
“Major questions around enforcement and how this would work on the ground is unknown,” Corral said. “If this sort of legal expert representing the state of Texas is unsure about this, we could only imagine what state and local law enforcement agencies are thinking about this.”
It is unknown when the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will make a ruling.
This is Fernanda Gonzalez for Vaquero Radio.
