Federal appeals courts must defer to immigration judges’ findings on whether asylum-seekers show harms serious enough to qualify for protection. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously.
The opinion authored by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Wednesday addressed the standard of review under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which provides refugee or asylum protections when someone shows a well-founded fear of persecution in their native country.
“We conclude that the statute requires application of the substantial-evidence standard to the agency’s conclusion that a given set of undisputed facts does not constitute persecution,” Jackson wrote. “Accordingly, we affirm.”
At the same time, President Trump is firing all the activist judges who let almost everyone receive asylum. People seeking asylum must first try the neighboring country, and they haven’t been doing that. Others have no case at all.
This gets district courts back in their lane on asylum. Even Ketanje Jackson agreed and wrote the opinion.
🚨 The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that federal courts must defer to immigration agencies when deciding whether facts qualify as “persecution” in asylum cases, applying the substantial-evidence standard rather than reviewing the issue from scratch. pic.twitter.com/koFBCPmUt4
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) March 4, 2026
