Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Center for Biological Diversity, et al. v. Chad Wolf, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, et al.
Paid petition · United States District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 18-cv-0655-KBJ, 19-cv-2085-KBJ · judgment September 4, 2019
Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.
Question presented
Section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, 8 U.S.C. § 1103 note (“IIRIRA”), grants the Secretary of Homeland Security (“Secretary”) the authority to “waive all legal requirements”—including all federal, state, local, and tribal laws, regulations, and legal requirements deriving therefrom—that the Secretary, in the Secretary’s “sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of barriers and roads” in the vicinity of the U.S. borders. The statute permits only legal challenges alleging a violation of the Constitution of the United States, and appellate review of a district court decision is available solely through a writ of certiorari to this Court with no circuit court review. Id. § 102(c)(2)(C). Further, IIRIRA § 102(c) prohibits any judicial review—whether federal or state—of the Secretary’s waiver decisions for failure to comply with statutory standards. Id. § 102(c)(2)(A). This action presents a constitutional challenge to the Secretary’s issuance of six waiver decisions, made pursuant to IIRIRA § 102(c) in 2018 and 2019, waiving more than forty federal laws—and all related state, local, and tribal laws, regulations, and legal requirements deriving therefrom—which are otherwise applicable to the construction of 145-miles of steel-bollard walls along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. The question presented is: Whether IIRIRA § 102(c)—which grants the Secretary of Homeland Security unfettered discretion to
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Anchun Jean Su
Center for Biological Diversity
For respondent
Noel John Francisco
Jones Day
Proceedings
- Jun 29 2020Petition DENIED.
- Jun 09 2020DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 6/25/2020.
- Jun 04 2020Reply of petitioners Center for Biological Diversity, et al. filed. (Distributed)
- May 21 2020Brief of respondents Chad F. Wolf, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, et al. in opposition filed.
- May 14 2020Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including May 21, 2020.
- May 13 2020Motion to extend the time to file a response from May 18, 2020 to May 21, 2020, submitted to The Clerk.
- Apr 13 2020Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including May 18, 2020.
- Apr 10 2020Motion to extend the time to file a response from April 16, 2020 to May 18, 2020, submitted to The Clerk.
- Mar 17 2020Response Requested. (Due April 16, 2020)
- Mar 11 2020DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/27/2020.
- Mar 05 2020Waiver of right of respondents Chad F. Wolf, et al. to respond filed.
- Mar 05 2020Brief amici curiae of La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) filed.
- Mar 05 2020Brief amici curiae of Local Governments filed.
- Mar 05 2020Brief amici curiae of Dr. Deni J. Seymour, Rick and Sandy Martynec, Gayle Hartmann, Dr. Paul R. and Dr. Suzanne Fish, and Archaeology Southwest filed.
- Mar 05 2020Brief amici curiae of North American Butterfly Association and National Butterfly Center filed.
- Feb 14 2020Blanket Consent filed by Petitioners, Center for Biological Diversity, et al.
- Jan 31 2020Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due March 5, 2020)
- Oct 29 2019Application (19A463) granted by The Chief Justice extending the time to file until February 1, 2020.
- Oct 21 2019Application (19A463) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from December 3, 2019 to February 1, 2020, submitted to The Chief Justice.