The Supreme Court just blocked Obama’s Immigration plan—here’s why that could be a good thing

Immigration-reform advocates suffered a significant blow Thursday, when the eight-member Supreme Court split onUnited Statesv.Texas, a case that involved the constitutionality of PresidentBarack Obama’sexecutive actions to undocumented immigrants from deportation. With Antonin Scalia’s seat still vacant, following his death in February, the court was divided evenly along partisan lines, thereby upholding a lower court’s decision to block the plan.

The 4-4 ruling is a major setback for Obama, not to mention the millions of immigrant families who are at risk of deportation or who cannot legally work in the U.S. But the decision could also be a boon for the cause of immigration reform in the long run, galvanizing Democratic voter turnout and increasing the odds thatHillary Clintonassumes the presidency next year. An energized base, led by a surge of Latino voters, could evenhelp Democrats retake the Senate, with a little assist from a certain unapologetically xenophobic G.O.P. presidential nominee.

According to the Pew Research Center, there are27.3 million Latino-Americans eligible to vote in 2016, or 12 percent of the U.S. population. Prior to Trump seizing the Republican nomination, the Naleo Educational Fundpredictedthat there would be a whopping 17 percent increase in Latino turnout from 2012—and that was before the Supreme Court blocked the implementation of Obama’s executive actions. For voters, the court’s split decision highlights the stakes of the ongoing battle to appoint a ninth justice to fill the late Scalia’s seat. Republicans have refused to hold a confirmation hearing for Obama’s Supreme Court nominee,Merrick Garland,breaking from precedent by arguing that the next president, not the current one, should have that power. That next president,according to recent pollsand most political analysts, will be Clinton. But Democrats need all the help they can get to make gains in the House and the Senate, which will give them more leverage to finally enact comprehensive immigration reform in 2017. Obama and Clinton couldn’t have asked for a better decision to rally against than the one the Supreme Court handed down today.

“This decision reminds us how much damage Senate Republicans are doing by refusing to consider President Obama's nominee to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court,” Clinton said in a statement Thursday, calling the ruling a “stark reminder of the harm Donald Trump would do to our families, our communities, and our country.” If you listen carefully, you can hear the fund-raising dollars rolling in.

(VANITY FAIR)