WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court today ruled 6-3 in Mullen v. Doe that Syrian and Haitian nationals are not entitled to orders postponing the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) during litigation. The Court holds that courts cannot review the Haitian and Syrian nationals’ non-constitutional claims because the TPS statute bars judicial review.  

Cully Stimson, acting director for The Heritage Foundation’s Institute of Constitutional Government, made the following statement:

“The statute authorizing Temporary Protected Status (TPS) explicitly states that the Secretary of Homeland Security has the sole discretion to designate and terminate designation of a country for ‘temporary’ protected status.  

“Not only that, but the statute specifically states that no court has authority to question or weigh in on the Secretary’s decision. The majority opinion today restores sanity to an uncomplicated statute. The United States will continue to provide protection to people from around the world under TPS status, but temporary means temporary, and ‘unreviewable’ means unreviewable.”  

Lora Ries, director of Heritage’s Border Security and Immigration Center, also noted the following:

“This is not the first time the Supreme Court has ruled that there is no judicial review of TPS terminations. It is time for activist judges in the lower courts to stop doing end-runs around clear statutory judicial review bars for policy reasons.”