Vox Sentences - Biden's border win

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UP FIRST: Supreme Court sides with Biden admin in Texas

CATCH UP: Alabama’s death penalty controversy

—Li Zhou, senior reporter

Biden's border win

John Moore/Getty Images

In a major immigration case, the Supreme Court ruled that federal officials can take down razor wire at the southern border that Texas installed to deter migrants. 

This decision comes after Texas sued the Biden administration over attempts to cut the wire and after a lower circuit court supported the state’s actions. The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision effectively means that the federal government can now remove the wire, which has injured migrants and prevented officials from reaching people in distress. 

The case answers a key question posed by the standoff: whether federal law still supersedes state law. As Vox’s Ian Millhiser explains, the justices narrowly reaffirmed that “duly enacted federal laws overcome all state laws that conflict with them, and that states may not prevent federal officials from performing their official job duties.” 

Beyond constitutional questions, Texas’s harsh border security efforts — which have also included a floating barrier and an influx of law enforcement — put a spotlight on the immigration impasse the federal government finds itself in. Increasingly, states have begun to argue they need to take extreme unilateral action on immigration in the face of congressional gridlock on the issue. Additionally, Republicans have sought to capitalize on this tension in order to score political points ahead of the 2024 election. 

• The Texas moves add to others: Texas is among the Republican-led states that have pulled what the Biden administration describes as “stunts,” as GOP leaders seek to critique Democrats on immigration. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have also put migrants on buses and planes and sent them to Chicago and New York City to draw attention to an uptick in migration in 2023. 
• It’s an issue in Congress, too: While a bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to find an immigration deal, far-right Republicans have threatened to shut down the government if more aggressive border security policies aren’t put in place to keep people out. Any deal could also include tougher proposals that restrict access to asylum. 
• Immigration policies are becoming harsher overall: As Republicans have attacked Democrats, claiming Biden isn’t tough enough on immigration, Democrats have acquiesced to some GOP demands. In 2023, the White House said it would continue certain Trumpian policies like building the border wall.

Read Vox’s Nicole Narea for more on how the Overton window for these policies has shifted, raising alarms among immigration advocates. 

Concerns over an Alabama execution

Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Physicians have expressed serious concerns about a new, untested execution method the state of Alabama intends to use this week. Officials from the United Nations have argued it “could amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” since it’s never been used by a state before and could be painful to undergo. 

The method — known as nitrogen hypoxia — involves putting a gas mask on a person that contains nitrogen instead of oxygen, eventually leaving them unable to breathe. The state plans to use it to kill Kenneth Smith, a man who has been convicted of capital murder. 

The Alabama case is the latest to draw attention to the debate over capital punishment and how humane the death penalty actually is. In Oklahoma, too, there’s an ongoing court case over whether the state can impose the death penalty on an inmate, after flaws were found in the prosecution’s case. 

• Pushback against the death penalty has grown: There’s been rising opposition to capital punishment in recent years. In an October 2023 Gallup poll, 50 percent of respondents said the death penalty is being imposed unfairly, the highest figure the organization has seen since it began surveying views toward this issue. There’s also a growing movement to eradicate the death penalty altogether. 

• An investigation at Columbia University: Students at a demonstration for Palestinian rights have said they were sprayed with a chemical during the protest, prompting an investigation by both the institution and New York City law enforcement. [NYT] 
• Flooding in San Diego: The California city has had its wettest January day on record as it navigates a series of flash floods. [NBC News]
• Barbie snubs by the Oscars: Although the film received a Best Picture nod and nominations for supporting actor and actress, its lead actress and director weren’t nominated for awards. [People]
• Continued deadly fighting in Gaza: The Israeli government has said that Monday was one of its military’s deadliest days, after 24 Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza. Since the start of this war, Israel has killed more than 25,000 people in Gaza in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack. [CNN]

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