Prof. Nicholas Bednar ’16 Interviewed by Talking Points Memo About Texas Court Decision Allowing Abandonment of Deportation Cases

Professor Nicholas Bednar ’16 was interviewed by Talking Points Memo about an obscure administrative lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Texas. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued to invalidate a Biden-era rule allowing immigration court judges to shelve deportation cases indefinitely without deciding them. Normally, the kind of lawsuit goes on for weeks or months as the government defends a given policy or, in some cases, elects to abandon it. A Trump administration-friendly judge issued a ruling that purported to permanently block the DOJ — under any future administration — from issuing the rule while also annulling it. Some legal analysts say the ruling may make it far more difficult for future administrations to undo the rule. Prof. Bednar said, “The administration can easily reverse a rule with which it disagrees, evade notice-and-comment rulemaking, and tie the hands of the future administration by conceding the agency lacks statutory authority to promulgate the rule in the first place. This is a win-win for a presidential administration that has defined its agenda around deregulation.”