IMMIGRATION/NEIL GORSUCH/ SUPREME COURT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Justice Neil Gorsuch joined liberal justices to provide the tie-breaking vote in a Supreme Court ruling Tuesday [4-17-18] that said a federal immigration law requiring deportation for certain crimes was unconstitutionally vague. The case, Sessions v. Dimaya, focused on a Filipino with permanent U.S. residency who had been convicted of burglary. The defendant, James Dimaya, argued that when Congress adopted deportation criteria for immigrants who committed violent crimes, it wrote some of the rules so loosely that they were unconstitutional. The high court agreed, marking the first 5-4 ruling in which Justice Gorsuch, appointed by President Donald Trump, broke from his conservative colleagues. The new justice’s position, however, wasn’t a total surprise. The majority’s ruling, written by Justice Elena Kagan, relied upon a 2015 decision written by the late Justice Antonin Scalia, the iconic conservative whom Justice Gorsuch replaced. Justice Gorsuch, like his predecessor, has favored procedural protections for defendants against sweeping government power.”
–Brent Kendall, “Gorsuch Sides With Liberal Justices in Immigration Ruling,” The Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2018 12:36 pm