A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected an effort to defend the Texas Dream Act, leaving in place a ruling that ended a longstanding state law that allowed some undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals court said advocacy groups, Austin Community College and a student could not step into the case to defend the Texas Dream Act because federal law bars states from giving undocumented students a tuition benefit based on residency unless the same benefit is available to all U.S. citizens, regardless of where they live.
The law allowed students who attended and graduated from high school in Texas to pay in-state tuition, even if they did not have legal immigration status.
[…]
Marco Julian Gonzalez, a University of Texas at Austin business student whose fraternity and sister sorority filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the students working to preserve the Texas Dream Act, said he was disheartened by the ruling and wondering what steps they could take next.
“We know who these people are and we know who they are not, and when you have politicians go on the airwaves and call our friends criminal illegal aliens we take offense and that kept us motivated to keep going,” Gonzalez said.
Judge Jerry E. Smith wrote the majority opinion for the 5th Circuit Court that Judge Don Willett joined. Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez dissented.
Smith was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, Willett by President Donald Trump, and Ramirez by President Joe Biden.
See here, here, and here for the background. I’m sorry, but this is a total screw job, and a big pile of cowardice from the Fifth Circuit. This was a corrupt Justice Department, a corrupt Attorney General, and a disgraceful judge conspiring to do by fiat what the Legislature failed to do. This law was on the books for over 20 years, having been passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority, and only just now did these forces decide it was actually illegal all along. Again I say, court reform has to be a lot bigger than just SCOTUS, because as long as unscrupulous plaintiffs can hand-pick a friendly judge and then get full backup from a lawless Fifth Circuit, it doesn’t even matter what’s happening in Washington DC. Texas Public Radio has more.
I bet ‘Judge’ Jerry Edwin Smith and ‘Judge’ Donny Ray Willett were nasty little sh**s even in kindergarten.