Supreme Court Denies Emergency Application, Leaving Same-Day Texas-DOJ Consent Judgment on Administrative Closure in Place

On October 27, 2026 the Supreme Court denied, in a single-sentence order, an emergency application to pause a consent judgment that ended administrative closure for immigration judges. Three cities with substantial immigrant populations and a legal-aid group had asked for the pause. The judgment was entered in a single day by Chief Judge Reed O’Connor in Wichita Falls, Texas: 278 minutes passed between Texas’s complaint at 1:51 p.m. and the order at 6:29 p.m. On the same day that the case was filed, the U.S. Department of Justice and Texas filed a motion to have O’Connor enter a final judgment for the state. The order permanently barred the Department of Justice from issuing a similar rule.

Challengers argued the procedure lets an agency avoid the strictures of the Administrative Procedure Act by declining to defend its own rule. Data cited in related filings showed roughly 340,000 to 392,000 cases administratively closed at various points (Eyes on ICE, not confirmed from a primary filing).