President Obama's immigration reform via executive fiat was all but repealed by the Supreme Court in an unusually brief decision in United States v Texas that stated in its entirety, "[t]he judgment is affirmed by an equally divided  court."

That judgment, issued by a federal judge in Brownsville, Texas, granted Texas' request to enjoin enforcement of the executive policy; a series of recent executive directives made through the Department of Homeland Security known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program (“DAPA”).

The terse per curiam decision has no precedential effect thus, it does not bind lower courts. But by upholding the lower court's injunction of DAPA, the SCOTUS effectively blunted the power of the President to sidestep a gridlocked Congress through the passage of a series of executive orders.

Fallout from this decision leaves the fate of more than 11 million illegal immigrants and their families unresolved, foreclosing the brief glimpse of opportunity to achieve legal status here in the United States.

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