Supreme Court DACA Ruling Sides with Akin Gump Pro Bono Clients

(Washington, D.C.) – The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that the Trump administration may not immediately proceed with its plan to end a program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), that protects about 700,000 immigrants known as Dreamers who arrived in the U.S. as children from deportation. For now, those immigrants retain their protection from deportation as well as their authorization to work in the United States.

Akin Gump authored an amicus brief in the case, Department of Homeland Security et al. v. Regents of the University of California et al., siding with the respondents.

Akin Gump wrote the brief on behalf of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality, and 42 leading individual historians in support of a legal challenge to the federal government’s decision to rescind the DACA program. (Click here to read the brief in its entirety.)

Speaking of today’s ruling, Pratik Shah, co-head of Akin Gump’s Supreme Court and appellate practice, said, “The Court’s decision that the administration cannot arbitrarily upend the lives of hundreds of thousands who arrived in our country as children—many of whom have never known any other home, and all of whom have furthered their education or served in our armed forces—is a victory for both the rule of law and common decency.”

Joining Mr. Shah on the Akin Gump team were litigation partner Julius Chen, corporate partner Alice Hsu and litigation senior counsel Jessica Weisel.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 1,000 lawyers and advisors in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Founded in 1945, the firm is proudly celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2020. #AkinGump75

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