Background
African Communities Together and several individual plaintiffs brought claims challenging the Secretary of Homeland Security’s termination of Ethiopia’s designation for Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. The district court entered an order postponing that termination.
On appeal, the government moved to lift an abeyance, stay the district court’s postponement order, and summarily reverse. The First Circuit previously lifted the abeyance and denied an immediate administrative stay. After further briefing, the court considered the effect of the Supreme Court’s intervening decision in Mullin v. Doe.
The Court’s Holding
The First Circuit summarily reversed the district court’s postponement order. It explained that Mullin v. Doe held that the TPS statute’s judicial-review bar applies to all nonconstitutional claims challenging the Secretary’s determination concerning termination of a TPS designation.
Because claims of that nature supplied the only basis for the postponement order on appeal, the order could not stand. The court remanded for further proceedings consistent with Mullin, denied the government’s request for a stay pending appeal as moot, and directed that the mandate issue immediately.
Key Takeaways
- The TPS statute bars judicial review of nonconstitutional claims challenging the Secretary’s termination of a TPS designation.
- The district court’s postponement of Ethiopia’s TPS termination rested only on claims covered by that review bar.
- The First Circuit granted summary reversal, remanded the matter, and denied the requested appellate stay as moot.
Why It Matters
The judgment applies the Supreme Court’s intervening interpretation of the TPS judicial-review provision and eliminates the district court order that had postponed termination of Ethiopia’s TPS designation.
The decision also confirms that, after Mullin, nonconstitutional challenges to TPS-termination determinations cannot support comparable judicial relief under the barred claims at issue here.