Biden-appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson sides with SCOTUS conservatives

The U.S. Supreme Court took action with regard to the border this week, making it easier for the federal government to deport legal immigrants who have been convicted of certain crimes.

Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the majority in a 6-3 decision.

"In an opinion authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the justices ruled in the case Pugin v. Garland that convictions for both accessory after the fact and attempting to dissuade victims from reporting sexual misconduct are crimes serious enough to make a person eligible for permanent removal," reported the Washington Examiner.

The plaintiffs' lawyers said that obstruction of justice would mean there is an open investigation requirement, but Kavanaugh and the other five justices were unified in saying that is not the case.

"Individuals can obstruct the process of justice even when an investigation or proceeding is not pending," Kavanaugh wrote in the opinion. "For example, a murderer may threaten to kill a witness if the witness reports information to the police. Such an act is no less obstructive merely because the government has yet to catch on and begin an investigation."

"Jackson, an appointee of President Joe Biden, found herself for the first time joining five Republican-appointed justices in opposition to her two liberal colleagues. Justice Neil Gorsuch, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, joined liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor's dissent, with Elena Kagan dissenting in part, creating a 6-3 opinion that wasn't split across ideological lines," reported the Examiner.

"I agree with the Court that the Ninth Circuit wrongly embraced a pending-proceeding requirement when it assessed what types of prior offenses qualify as 'offense[s] relating to obstruction of justice' under 8 U. S. C. §1101(a)(43)(S), for purposes of determining the 'aggravated felon[ies]' that render noncitizens deportable, §1227(a)(2)(A)(iii)," Jackson said.