Blue Brief 2025-2026

Justin Brooks

Professor of Practice

Mullin v. Doe: Closing the Courthouse Doors to TPS Recipients

I.

I n Mullin v. Doe , the United States Supreme Court considered whether federal courts have the power to review the Secretary of Homeland Security’s decision to terminate a country’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS). In a sharply divided 6-3 decision, the Court held that virtually all challenges to TPS termination decisions, except the rare constitutional claim, are beyond the reach of federal judicial review. This decision further expands executive authority to act free from meaningful judicial oversight and could lead to the deportation of hundreds of thousands of longtime U.S. residents. Mullin v. Doe focused particularly on the TPS recipients from Syria and Haiti. Congress created TPS in 1990 as a humanitarian measure designed to protect people who could not safely return to their home countries because of war, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions. Syria received TPS in 2012 after peaceful protests against the government of

Bashar al-Assad devolved into a brutal civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions more. Haiti received TPS in 2010 after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince, killing an estimated 230,000 people and leaving more than a million homeless. TPS allowed nationals from both countries who were already in the United States to receive protection from deportation, permission to remain in the country, and authorization to work. The Trump administration has not been a supporter of TPS. In January 2025, President Trump issued an executive order directing that TPS designations be interpreted narrowly and terminated whenever possible. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin subsequently terminated TPS protections for Syria and Haiti .

When recipients of TPS from both countries challenged the terminations in federal court,

UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO SCHOOL OF LAW | Faculty Review of 2025-2026 U.S. Supreme Court Term | Page 5