Supreme Court Stays Illinois-Specific Injunction Against Public Charge Rule

On February 21, 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States granted the Federal Government's application to stay the preliminary injunction entered by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against the enforcement of its public charge final rule in Illinois [PDF version]. The vote in favor of the Government was 5-4, with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan voting to deny the application. The Supreme Court had already stayed a universal injunction against the rule that had been entered by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York [see blog]. With the Court's decision to stay the injunction that applied to Illinois alone, the Government will now apply the public charge final rule nationwide.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it will implement the public charge rule in Illinois, as well as in the rest of the country, to all applications filed on or after February 24, 2020 [PDF version]. Applicants filing applications affected by the rule on or after February 24, 2020, must use the updated editions of affected forms [see blog]. We discuss the implementation of the rule in a separate post [see blog].

Although the Supreme Court has stayed the district court injunctions against the public charge final rule, thus allowing it to take effect for the time being, the litigation regarding the rule is ongoing in multiple Federal appellate courts across the country. We will update the site with further information about the litigation as it proceeds through the courts.

For those who are interested, please see our separate post on Justice Sotomayor's reasons for disagreeing with the Supreme Court's decision to stay the Illinois injunction against the public charge rule [see blog].