WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a law subjecting non-citizens to deportation for crimes of violence is unconstitutionally vague, handing the Trump administration an early defeat — thanks to the vote of Justice Neil Gorsuch.
President Trump's nominee to the high court joined most of the ruling by the court's liberal minority, agreeing that the law failed to define what would qualify as a violent crime. He based his conclusion on a similar decision written in 2015 by his predecessor, Justice Antonin Scalia.
Vague laws, Gorsuch wrote, "can invite the exercise of arbitrary power ... by leaving the people in the dark about what the law demands and allowing prosecutors and courts to make it up. The law before us today is such a law."
The decision did not please the president, who called it a "public safety crisis"
Politicized court appointments sometimes backfire, as Justices realize their responsibilities to the Constitution.
President Trump's nominee to the high court joined most of the ruling by the court's liberal minority, agreeing that the law failed to define what would qualify as a violent crime. He based his conclusion on a similar decision written in 2015 by his predecessor, Justice Antonin Scalia.
Vague laws, Gorsuch wrote, "can invite the exercise of arbitrary power ... by leaving the people in the dark about what the law demands and allowing prosecutors and courts to make it up. The law before us today is such a law."
The decision did not please the president, who called it a "public safety crisis"
Politicized court appointments sometimes backfire, as Justices realize their responsibilities to the Constitution.