The eight current members of the U.S. Supreme Court seemed evenly divided last month when President Barack Obama’s program that would defer the deportation of certain parents of American citizens and permanent residents came before the court for oral argument. Many observers have predicted that the court will split, 4-4, in United States v. Texas, which would have the odd effect of affirming an injunction from the U.S. Court of Appeals for Fifth Circuit against the program, while leaving it unaddressed in the rest of the country.
If ever a case needed a nine-member court, that was it.
