The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Friday that U.S. citizens have no constitutional right to require their non-citizen spouses to enter the country.
In Department of State v. Muñoz, Sandra Muñoz, a U.S. citizen, argued that the State Department violated her constitutional rights by failing to inform her of the reasons for her husband’s visa denial, arguing that “the right to live in the United States with an alien spouse is implicit in the ‘liberties’ protected by the Fifth Amendment.” Her husband, Luis Asensio Cordero, was denied a visa because consular officers determined, in part, based on his tattoos, that he had ties to the MS-13 gang.
The ruling comes just days after President Joe Biden issued an executive order providing protections to undocumented immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens. The order, announced Tuesday, gives spouses a path to legal status in addition to deportation protections and work authorization.
“Muñoz asserts a ‘fundamental right to marry,’ but the Department of State has not denied that Muñoz (who is already married) has a fundamental right to marry,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote. I have written “Muñoz makes a clear case,” the majority decision said. Residing in the U.S. with a foreign spouse. ” (Related article: “Unconstitutional”: President Biden’s “pardon” executive order faces multiple legal challenges)
On Friday, June 21, 224 at 10:17 a.m., the Supreme Court issued three decisions, none of which were very significant.
But there is one opinion worth noting: Department of State v. Muñoz. This decision is important because it came just after Biden tried to grant immigrant amnesty… pic.twitter.com/CriVVje3mo
— Jeff Clark (@JeffClarkUS) June 21, 2024
Munoz “suffered harm from the denial of Asensio Cordero’s visa application,” but “that harm does not entitle him to a constitutional right to participate in the consular process,” Barretto wrote.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissenting opinion joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote that the majority’s decision “departs from long-standing precedent and significantly undermines the right to marriage in immigration matters.” (Related: Supreme Court upholds gun ban for domestic violence perpetrators)
“Because excluding the spouse of a citizen unquestionably burdens that spouse’s right to marriage, and that burden requires the government to provide at least a factual basis for its decision, I respectfully dissent,” Sotomayor wrote.
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