Supreme Court issues stunning rebuke to Trump administration with DACA decision

LOS ANGELES - The Supreme Court issued a stunning rebuke to the Trump administration with the DACA ruling Thursday, a second apparent loss for the White House this week.

The Supreme Court rejected President Trump's bid to end legal protections for 650,000 young immigrants who are a part of the DACA program Thursday. It's a victory for DACA recipients like Jesus Villegas. He is in his junior year of college studying theater.

"I am studying theater so I can in the future produce projects to uplift the undocumented voice. I've been a DACA recipient since 2015, and this has allowed people like me to be able to work and provide, not just to my family, but also to this nation. We pay taxes. It gives us a sense of security, and a sense of hope," said Villegas.

Villegas and a group of others from CHIRLA celebrated the win from the Supreme Court with a caravan through the Antelope Valley.

"We are now taking this brief celebration of this victory so we can show the world that we matter, we are here and we are a strong and beautiful community. We need to be able to be here and have a permanent solution to do what we want and to do what we want to give back to this nation," he said.

The Supreme Court labeled Trump's bid as "arbitrary and capricious."

"Today the Supreme Court said 'Trump administration you can go back home and try to find some other reasons for ending DACA, but you didn't give us enough reasons today,'" said Jessica Levinson, a Professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Levinson said it is a loss for the Trump administration.

"What you have here again is Chief Justice John Roberts siding with the liberals of the court to make a decision that the Trump administration doesn't like or to make a decision that was adverse to what they were asking for," said Levinson.

Levinson described it as a "short-term victory" for DACA recipients.

"Let's remember DACA is really a story of congressional failure. DACA was a program that was implemented as a result of an executive order from President Obama. In a way today, the Supreme Court really saved particularly Congressional Republicans from themselves because they can, again just kind of punt on the issue, but at a certain point, this is really Congress' purview. This is for Congress to legislate and to make a decision about how and whether we're going to protect this group of nearly a million people," said Levinson.

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Just days before the DACA announcement, the Supreme Court issued a historic ruling protecting LGBT employees from discrimination at work. The Trump administration sided with the employers in the three cases before the court.

"If you just look at these four days, people are going to think 'is this a moderate court or a liberal court,' and the answer is no, it absolutely is not. The cases this week, the two big cases, the LGBT case, and DACA, those are pretty narrow cases of statutory interpretation with huge practical implications. A conservative judicial philosophy doesn't always translate into a conservative political win so that's part of what we're seeing today and this week as well," said Levinson.

President Trump tweeted in response to the DACA ruling by pushing for more conservative justices and tweeting "Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn't like me?"

"The President saying do you get the idea that the Supreme Court doesn't like me is just either a political play or he just fundamentally misunderstands the role of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court's role isn't to like or dislike presidents, it's to look at every law, apply the facts to that law and determine the winner and who the loser is gonna be," said Levinson.

The Supreme Court vote was 5-4 with Chief Justice John Roberts casting the fifth vote, siding with the court's four liberal justices.