Jeff Sessions in Supreme Court 2020s

On Immigration: DACA program was created without proper authority

After Trump came into office, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the program had been created "without proper authority" and only after Congress had rejected proposed legislation. The following day, DHS announced DACA would be phased out, pointing out that it had "legal and constitutional defects."

Months later, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen issued a new memo laying out more policy-based justifications for winding down the program. She said, for example, that the program increased the risk of undermining public confidence in the rule of law.

Federal courts said the administration had acted arbitrarily when phasing out the program. The courts pointed to the administration's thin justification--reasoning Roberts and the Supreme Court eventually agreed with.