Mullin v. Doe
The Court holds that the Temporary Protected Status statute's judicial-review bar forecloses respondents' non-constitutional challenges to the termination of TPS for Syria and Haiti, reaching not only the Secretary's ultimate decision but also the subsidiary steps leading to it. It further holds that the Haitian challengers' equal protection claim — that Haiti's designation was ended because of race — is unlikely to succeed, since the cited statements were not overtly racial and expressed policy views that could rest on race-neutral justifications. The District Courts' grants of interim relief are reversed and remanded.
Case background
Congress created Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in 1990 to provide short-term humanitarian relief for aliens who cannot safely return to their home countries; although designed to afford temporary relief, TPS designations in practice have often lasted for decades. Syria received a TPS designation in 2012 because of “extraordinary and temporary conditions” related to the repressive regime of Bashar al-Assad, and Haiti received one in 2010 after a devastating earthquake. In 2025, the Secretary of Homeland Security provided public notice that both designations would terminate. Seven Syrian nationals sued in the Southern District of New York under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and the District Court granted interim relief under 5 U. S. C. §705; the Second Circuit denied the Government’s request for a stay. Five Haitian nationals sued in the District Court for the District of Columbia under the APA and also charged that terminating Haiti’s designation violated the constitutional right to equal protection because it was motivated by race; that court granted interim relief, and a divided D. C. Circuit panel declined to issue a stay. The Government sought a stay and a writ of certiorari before judgment in both cases, and this Court granted review, consolidated the cases, and deferred ruling on the stay applications.
Questions Presented
(1) Whether the judicial-review bar in the TPS statute, 8 U.S.C. 1254a(b)(5)(A), precludes respondents’ APA claims.
(2) If reviewable, whether respondents’ APA claims nonetheless fail on the merits.
Holding
The TPS statute bars judicial review of respondents’ non-constitutional claims. Section 1254a(b)(5)(A) provides that there is no judicial review of any “determination” of the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the designation, or termination or extension of a designation, of a foreign state. Whether “determination” means an individual decision or the process leading up to a decision, the bar reaches all of respondents' non-constitutional claims, including their APA claims and the subsidiary procedural steps that merge into the final agency action.
The Miot respondents’ equal protection claim — that Haiti’s TPS designation was terminated because of race — is unlikely to succeed. Even assuming heightened scrutiny under Arlington Heights applies, none of the cited statements by the President or the Secretary was overtly racial, and all expressed policy views that could rest on race-neutral justifications; indeed, respondents themselves offer a race-neutral explanation for the Government’s action. Reversed and remanded.
The Court
Justice Alito announced the judgment of the Court and delivered the opinion of the Court except as to Part III–A. The Chief Justice and Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh joined that opinion in full, and Justices Gorsuch and Barrett joined except for Part III–A. Justice Thomas filed a concurring opinion. Justice Kagan filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Sotomayor and Jackson joined.
What this episode contains
This episode is an AI-narrated reading of the majority opinion in Mullin v. Doe, written by Justice Alito.
AI disclosure: The voice in this episode is AI-generated, using a machine learning model styled to loosely resemble the authoring justice. Tone, inflection, pacing, and emphasis are artifacts of the model and should not be attributed to Justice Alito. The text being read is the Court’s published majority opinion, lightly adapted to improve readability for the spoken format.