Many thanks to @UIllLRev for the opportunity to contribute to this symposium on the Biden administration's first 100 days—and for editing and publishing these pieces so quickly. It's a terrific, compelling collection and a privilege to be included. 1/ https://twitter.com/elizabeth_joh/status/1388200331603894274

My contribution examines the litigation challenging @JoeBiden's efforts to fulfill his campaign promise to dismantle his predecessor's immigration policies—and the ways in which a Trump-transformed federal judiciary may seek to undermine those efforts. 2/ https://www.illinoislawreview.org/symposium/first-100-days-biden/immigration-enforcement-strategic-entrenchment-and-the-dead-hand-of-the-trump-presidency/

Outgoing presidents often try to try to tie their successors' hands—but the efforts by the Trump presidency and its allies to stymie @JoeBiden's immigration agenda have been unusual and irregular—"the whole point [was] 110% to screw [Biden] from doing anything for 6 months." 3/

Soon after Biden's swearing-in, the fmr president's allies went straight to a brand new Trump judicial appointee, Drew Tipton, to try to entrench Trump's immigration policies. He partially delivered, blocking Biden's 100-day deportation moratorium in two highly flawed rulings. 4/

While the lasting significance of Tipton’s decrees may be limited, they offer a window into the methods that a judiciary packed with Trump appointees may use to become an eager, active collaborator in partisan efforts to undermine @JoeBiden's policy agenda in the coming years. 5/

Even before @JoeBiden won the election, Trump-affiliated judicial appointees had been delivering votes (and in some cases, lengthy, aggressive, and angry separate opinions) in support of immigration restrictionist positions taken by the Trump presidency. 6/

More expansive (and no less dubious) legal claims are still pending before Tipton, and Trump's allies have filed other lawsuits seeking to entrench Trump's immigration agenda and effectively deny the Biden administration’s ability to implement its own immigration policies. 7/

If Tipton's rulings are any indication, these efforts to entrench Trump's immigration agenda may find receptive audiences among Trump’s judicial appointees. The potential implications extend far beyond the fate of the 100-day removal moratorium itself. 8/ http://klhn.co/2021illinoislawreviewbiden100days