The Trump administration has long sought to persuade the Supreme Court to rule on whether it had the authority to cancel the program. But the justices turned down an unusual petition seeking review in January 2018, before any appeals court had ruled. The administration asked again in November, not long before the Ninth Circuit ruled.
For many months, the Supreme Court took no action on the request, which was at odds with the court’s usual practice.
On Friday, before the justices left for their summer break, the court agreed to hear an appeal of the Ninth Circuit decision, Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, No. 18-587, along with two others in which appeals courts have not yet ruled: Trump v. NAACP, No. 18-588, and McAleenan v. Vidal, No. 18-589.
The administration has argued that the program was an unconstitutional exercise of executive authority, relying on a ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, that shut down a related program created by Mr. Obama, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA, saying he had exceeded his statutory authority.
In his executive action establishing DAPA, which was blocked by courts before it went into effect, Mr. Obama would have allowed as many as five million unauthorized immigrants who were the parents of citizens or of lawful permanent residents to apply for a program sparing them from deportation and providing them work permits.
After the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, the Supreme Court deadlocked, 4 to 4, in an appeal of the Fifth Circuit’s ruling, leaving it in place and ending what Mr. Obama had hoped would become one of his central legacies.
The Trump administration has argued that the DAPA ruling meant that DACA was also unlawful.
In its decision in November, the Ninth Circuit said the two programs differed in important ways, rejecting the administration’s legal analysis. The appeals court affirmed a nationwide injunction ordering the administration to retain major elements of the program while the case moved forward.