Phil Torrey’s article “Jennings v. Rodriguez and the Future of Immigration Detention” published in Harvard Latinx Law Review

Managing Attorney of the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, Philip L. Torrey, recently published an article, Jennings v. Rodriguez and the Future of Immigration Detention”, in the Harvard Latinx Law Review. The article explores the possible implications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s pending decision in the Jennings v. Rodriguez case.

Immigration detention will likely play a central role in the Trump administration’s efforts to increase deportations. Despite the President’s broad authority to detain, the U.S. Supreme Court will have an opportunity this term to limit that authority. In Jennings, the Court will consider both statutory and constitutional challenges to the government’s ability to detain certain individuals without providing them the opportunity to be released on bond. Not only does the Court’s decision in Jennings have the potential to restrict the government’s use of immigration detention, but it could simultaneously chip away at the plenary power doctrine, which traditionally accords Congress and the President broad authority to enact, administer, and enforce immigration law without judicial oversight.