INS v. Legalization Assistance Project of Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, 510 U.S. 1301, 4 (1993)

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1304

INS v. LEGALIZATION ASSISTANCE PROJECT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY FEDERATION OF LABOR

Opinion in Chambers

grants"; therefore, the court held, the organizations' claims were ripe. App. B to Application 6, citing Legalization Assistance Project of Los Angeles County Federation of Labor v. INS, 976 F. 2d 1198, 1204 (CA9 1992), cert. pending, No. 93-73. Therefore, "because this case has assumed the posture of a broad-based challenge to the regulations in question by organizations which the Ninth Circuit explicitly found have standing to bring these claims," App. B to Application 6, the court declined to vacate its June 1 order.

II

As a Circuit Justice dealing with an application like this, I must try to predict whether four Justices would vote to grant certiorari should the Court of Appeals affirm the District Court order without modification; try to predict whether the Court would then set the order aside; and balance the so-called "stay equities." Heckler v. Lopez, supra, at 1330-1331. This is always a difficult and speculative inquiry, but in this case it leads me to conclude that a stay is warranted.

Respondents assert that the INS is violating the law of the land, and they ask the federal courts to order the INS to stop this. But the broad power to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed" is conspicuously not granted to us by the Constitution. Rather, it is given to the President of the United States, see U. S. Const., Art. II, § 3, along with the power to supervise the conduct of the Executive Branch, Art. II, §§ 1, 2, which includes the INS. The federal courts are granted a different sort of power—the power to adjudge "Cases" or "Controversies," Art. III, § 2, cl. 1, within the jurisdiction defined by Congress, Art. III, § 2, cl. 2.

Congress has in fact considered the proper scope of federal court jurisdiction to review administrative agency actions. It has explicitly limited such review to claims brought by "person[s] suffering legal wrong[s] because of agency action" (not applicable to the respondent organizations involved

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