Supreme Court rules that asylum seekers cannot appeal a denial in federal court.

File photo of the Supreme Court. The National Review.

The US Supreme Court has ruled in a 7-2 decision that asylum seekers who have their cases denied can not appeal that ruling in federal court. National Review. The case, Dept. of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam, involved a man from Sri Lanka who was beaten by unknown assailants and requested asylums. The man could not prove his case as he could not identify the attackers and could not prove he was still at risk. He filed a write of habeas corpus against the ruling, but the five conservative justices said that the request fell outside of the scope of habeas corpus. The court also ruled that people that are detained inside of the United States should be treated the same as people who are detained at the border. The ruling now means that asylum seekers that have their claims denied can be deported anywhere in the country. 

My Comment:

A fairly big win from the Supreme Court, which has been very disapointing lately. Not only have they failed to take up any gun cases since the New York City fiasco, they ruled that LGBT's are protected from discrimination and that DACA can't be overthrown in the short term. Argue about the merits of those cases all you want but you can't deny that it was not the way a 5-4 conservative court was supposed to rule. 

I think this is the right ruling. Thuraissigiam was denied asylum fairly. If he couldn't name his attackers then he wasn't entitled to asylum, which is supposed to be for people who are being persecuted, not every victim of a criminal attack. He might have been in danger in Sri Lanka but he couldn't prove it and I don't see why he should have moved in the front of the line over all the other people that have better claims or went through the immigration process. 

It's pretty stupid that if the ruling had gone the other way, it would mean that people could endlessly appeal their asylum requests and it would essentially mean that all anyone would have to do to stay in America would be to launch lawsuit after lawsuit. Eventually it would be easier to just let everyone in regardless of their claims and how valid they were. 

I do think there is a problem with false asylum claims. As I said before it's supposed to be because you are getting targeted for your race, ethnicity or politics, not just because you country is kinda crappy. Sure, countries like Sri Lanka or the Central American countries so many migrants have come from, have their problems, but until people start committing genocide those problems are their own. 

I've also thought that we probably have done enough for most migrants. We don't need to let everyone who applies into the country and we don't owe everyone in the world a free pass to America. I'm not saying we shouldn't help them, we should. But we should do it in a way that doesn't put a massive strain on US workers like many asylum seekers. 

I do think this will probably help President Trump a little, just like the previous rulings hurt him a little. One of the main reasons right wing people on the fence voted for Trump is his judicial appointments. The last few rulings shook the faith of people that don't like President Trump but voted for him for this reason. This might bring a few more of them back into the fold. Hopefully we will see more positive rulings from the Supreme Court soon.