You ready?

I was born ready.

Welcome to advisory opinions. I'm Sarah Isgerth. That's David French. And David, it feels like we're getting back into the groove of a post-supreme court term.

Because we've got a district court injunction coming out of the Ninth Circuit on President Biden's asylum policy, also sort of seen as a Trump-light asylum policy.

It's worth a quick discussion before that goes up on appeal. And then we've got, and maybe this will feel the most reminiscent to longtime listeners.

We've got a lot of qualified immunity cases to talk about. And they're all awful.

They're terrible.

But we're going to go from that depressing part of the law to the culture of law practice, which might actually be more depressing, interesting study that I read recently.

And finally, we've got presidential candidates for the GOP nomination talking about how they can do it better on judicial nominations.

So I thought that was worth a brief detour here at the end. Some fun conversation there.

All right, David. Let's start the Ninth Circuit or the border, depending on how you look at it. I'll just explain what the Biden current asylum policy is.

And then we can talk about how this judge ruled on it, a judge who is ruled by the way on the Trump asylum policy. So roundhog day all over the place.

Okay, noncitizens other than Mexican nationals who cross the southern border are presumed ineligible for asylum unless one they have advanced permission to travel to the US.

Cool. Two, they present at a port of entry for a pre-scheduled appointment.

Three, they have already sought and been denied asylum in another country in route to the US.

This is not surprising at all, right? And so to put this in sort of lay terms, if you're from anywhere other than Mexico, and you cross illegally, for instance, through the Rio Grande, you cannot apply for asylum on the other side.

If you're from anywhere other than Mexico, and you traveled through a bunch of other countries to get here and did not even apply for asylum in those countries.

You can't apply for asylum here. David, this is very similar to the Trump policy. This same judge and same group, frankly, went to this same judge.

And the judge tossed out that policy. That was upheld on appeal. This time, again, it's the they're coming from the left to attack the Biden policy. And the judge once again is like, yeah, same policy, same judge, same idea, still a violation.

And a few different reasons for doing so. I agree with Ilya Soman over at reason here on the Vola conspiracy that the strongest one appears to be just statutory.

Yeah, absolutely. And let's just read the statute. It's the really the relevant portion here is really short, Sarah.

Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States, whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who's brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters, irrespective of such alien status may apply for asylum in accordance with this section.

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