Texas Governor Greg Abbott believes the latest Supreme Court rulings suggest an “appetite” among justices to hand him a win on his border feud with the Biden administration.
“I don’t know how and why the justices voted the way they did, but there seemed to be four justices who indicated, at least an appetite, to keep the case as is,” Abbott told Fox News on Thursday.
The Supreme Court dealt the governor’s Operation Lone Star a blow earlier this week after it sided with the Biden administration and allowed federal Border Patrol agents to remove the razor wire installed at the border by Texas officials under Abbott’s orders. Monday’s 5-4 ruling was issued without explanation.
“This is not over,” Abbott responded to the justice’s decision in a social media post. “Texas’ razor wire is an effective deterrent to the illegal crossings Biden encourages. I will continue to defend Texas’ constitutional authority to secure the border and prevent the Biden Admin from destroying our property.”
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
The governor seemed hopeful on Thursday, saying that the lack of explanation for the Supreme Court ruling signaled that Texas could still win if the case were to return before the justices.
“There were no sentences or paragraphs or pages of an opinion written by the Supreme Court, so no one knows at all what they were thinking,” Abbott said. “All we know is that they wanted to send it back to the Fifth Circuit.”
The Texas Republican added that he believes the case could now get to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on its merits, and that if it goes all the way up to the Supreme Court, he would also win. He speculated that the justices who voted against him may have done so because there hadn’t been much of a record in the courts of the case, but that it could be different if the matter returns before the bench.
“The case that was presented to the United States Supreme Court actually did not have very much of a record upon which an appellate court can actually make a decision,” Abbott said.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
FOX NEWS: So if you could get this case on the merits to SCOTUS, you could win?
ABBOTT: Now I think maybe we will get it to the 5th Circuit on its merits pic.twitter.com/8cyuKE7jJt
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 25, 2024
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.