The Economist Aug 28th 2019 by S.M. | MINNEAPOLIS
The administration has asked the justices to let it enforce a rule barring asylum for most migrants passing through MexicoORDINARILY, the Supreme Court is a tribunal of last resort. Only after exhausting avenues for relief in the lower courts do parties tend to turn to America’s highest court—and, about 99 times out of 100, the justices refuse to take up their cases. The executive branch fares better than most litigants in persuading the Supreme Court to reconsider unfavourable rulings, but the president typically waits his turn like everybody else. Not so with President Donald Trump. Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, counts 21 times Mr Trump has made unusual requests to the justices in the first 30 months of his presidency. That is compared to eight requests during the 192 months of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
The administration's most recent plea was filed with Justice Elena Kagan on August 26th. Noel Francisco, Mr Trump’s solicitor general, asked the court to lift a district-court injunction against a rule, announced on July 16th, that “screens out asylum seekers who declined to request protection at the first opportunityâ€. This would deny a shot at asylum to anyone who appears at America’s southern land border having passed up a chance to apply for asylum while travelling through another country. With few exceptions, Hondurans, El Savadoreans and Guatemalans fleeing persecution or torture would have no chance of finding protection in America unless they could prove they had already sought, and been denied, asylum in another land.
More:
https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2019/08/28/donald-trump-asks-americas-highest-court-to-intervene-once-again
