Conservative justice sides with liberal judges in 5-4 SCOTUS ruling on illegal immigrant deportation

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In the case of an illegal immigrant seeking to avoid deportation, a ruling of 5-4 against found the United State Supreme Court in disagreement as to their specific role within the constitutional framework and Justice Neil Gorsuch sided with his liberal peers.

Pankajkumar Patel had entered the country illegally in the 90s with his wife Jyotsnaben and had endeavored to adjust his status in 2007 with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). However, when seeking to obtain his Georgia driver’s license, Patel had erroneously indicated that he was already a citizen and so his discretionary adjustment had been denied.

The case of Patel v. Garland was heard by SCOTUS after Patel had appealed to the 11th Circuit Court following the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attempting to deport him and his wife. Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh in ruling the matter was outside their purview because Congress had had set forth the rules Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Justice Department was required to follow.