Second Circuit Upholds Nationwide Preliminary Injunction on “Public Charge” Rule

Paul, Weiss and co-counsel The Legal Aid Society and the Center for Constitutional Rights, together with the N.Y. Attorney General, defeated a request by the U.S. government to stay a nationwide injunction on its new “public charge” rule. In its order, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied the government’s request for a stay, keeping the injunction in place pending arguments on the merits of the challenge.

The rule, promulgated by the Department of Homeland Security, proposes a new, expansive definition of the term “public charge” that would make it easier for immigration officials to deny admission or lawful permanent residence to immigrants deemed likely to receive certain public benefits such as food stamps, Medicaid and certain rental assistance.

In the first such ruling nationally in October in the case, U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels found that the rule likely violates the Administrative Procedure Act because it is contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious. Judge Daniels simultaneously granted a similar nationwide injunction in a parallel case brought by the N.Y. Attorney General. 

Paul, Weiss and co-counsel are representing Make the Road New York, African Services Committee, Asian American Federation, Catholic Charities Community Services (Archdiocese of New York) and Catholic Legal Immigration Network as organizational plaintiffs in the case.

The Paul, Weiss team includes litigation partner Andrew Ehrlich, counsel Jonathan Hurwitz, who argued the stay motion in the Second Circuit, and associates Elana Beale, Robert O’Loughlin, Daniel Sinnreich, Amy Bowles, Patrick Kessock, Brittney Xu, Avery Burrell, Leah Park, Chloe Lewis and William Taylor.