I just knew one of you would be here crowing about this and trying to twist it into an imaginary win. You might want to calm down just a little. This had to do with legal immigrants, not illegal immigrants.
Gorsuch made his opinion on the matter very clear. He firmly believes the law should be followed, and that legal immigrants who commit violent felonies should be deported immediately.
His vote wasn't in support of not deporting legal immigrants who commit violent felonies. His vote was against the actual wording of the law because he feels it's too vague and fails draw a line that clearly differentiates between non violent and violent felonies.
Words of advice. If you're trying to use Gorsuch's one vote in this criminal deportation case as an "ah ha" moment to crow about, then you are neither familiar with Gorsuch's record nor how this decision fits into his broader conservatism, so you should probably sit this one out.
Gorsuch did not join all of Kagan’s opinion, but he agreed with the outcome. “Vague laws invite arbitrary power,” Gorsuch wrote in concurring with the majority.
He mentioned that before the American Revolution, the crime of treason in English law gave authorities power to go after those whose opinions they disliked.
“Today’s vague laws may not be as invidious, but they can invite the exercise of arbitrary power all the same — by leaving the people in the dark about what the law demands and allowing prosecutors and courts to make it up,” he wrote.
For the conservative Gorsuch to align with the liberals might seem a surprise, but his vote was in keeping with questions he asked during oral argument in October. And he was in part following in the footsteps of the justice he replaced, the late Antonin Scalia.
Legal immigrants are here at the pleasure of the United States of America. They can be deported for any reason we deem necessary. They are not citizens.
This is immigration law not criminal law. It is not a criminal punishment to deport someone back to the their own country.
This ruling is bad for America.