Arizona v. Mayorkas (U.S. Supreme Court, 2023)

Title 42 is a public health law that was invoked by the Trump Administration at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to turn away asylum seekers, contrary to the expertise of public health professionals and U.S. obligations under national and international law. President Biden continued and expanded its use, long after other pandemic measures ended. In Huisha-Huisha v. Mayorkas, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Administration must end its use of Title 42 to expel migrants. Arizona and 18 other Republican-led states then asked the Supreme Court for permission to belatedly intervene on appeal. ADL joined 59 other civil rights organizations in an amicus brief led by Human Rights First and Justice Action Center opposing the states’ request to intervene. The brief focuses on the harms of continuing Title 42, including the violence that migrants and asylum seekers face in Mexico, the disproportionate harm to Black and Indigenous asylum seekers, and the ways in which LGBTQ+ people, women, girls, and people with disabilities face compounded dangers due to this policy.

Note: On Feb. 16, 2023, after the amicus brief was filed, the Court removed the case from its argument calendar.