BORDER/IMMIGRATION/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Supreme Court on Friday [12-21-18] upheld a federal judge’s order blocking the Trump administration’s new asylum restrictions. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the four liberal justices in the 5-4 ruling. The administration’s policy, signed on November 9, would temporarily bar migrants who illegally cross into the US through the southern border from seeking asylum outside of official ports of entry. A federal judge in California quickly blocked the order, and the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals agreed…Justice Department spokesman Steven Stafford said the department would continue fighting the block on the ban…Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh said they would have granted the administration’s request to lift the hold on the ban. This is the first high-profile vote in which Kavanaugh broke from Roberts. Earlier this year, he and Roberts joined with liberals to rebuff efforts by states seeking to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood. The court declined to say when or how Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had surgery in New York Friday, cast her vote. Other justices are also not in Washington and they were not scheduled to meet as a group this week. In these situations, justices often vote by phone or email.”
–Caroline Kelly, Ariane de Vogue and Dan Berman, “Supreme Court upholds block on Trump’s asylum ban,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, December 21, 2018 10:35 am