Los Angeles Times - 07.09.2019

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THE NATION

CHARLESTON, S.C. —
Hurricane Dorian began to
pull away from the South-
eastern coastline of the
United States on Friday af-
ter bringing severe flooding
to North Carolina’s Outer
Banks, making landfall as a
Category 1 storm and send-
ing residents across a string
of remote, low-lying barrier
islands scrambling to their
attics to avoid rising water
from powerful storm surges
and heavy rain.
The hurricane’s eye
reached Cape Hatteras,
N.C., shortly after 8:30 a.m.
EDT with maximum sus-
tained winds of 90 mph after
days of skirting Florida,
Georgia and the Carolinas
and earlier pounding the Ba-
hamas as a Category 5, caus-
ing catastrophic devas-
tation and killing at least 30
people.
The search for victims
and survivors in the Baha-
mas continued, five days af-
ter Dorian devastated the
Caribbean island nation
with 185-mph winds that ob-
literated countless homes.
Hundreds of Bahamians
gathered Friday at the
Marsh Harbour port on
Great Abaco — one of the

areas most devastated by

the storm — in the hope of

boarding a ferry to Nassau,

the capital.

There were no govern-

ment-organized evacu-

ations yet, the Associated

Press reported, but the Roy-

al Bahamas Defense Force

helped people board a 139-

foot ferry that had come to

pick up its employees and

had room for an additional

160 people.

A British navy ship

moored offshore has begun

to deliver essential items, in-

cluding ration packs, water

and blankets, and an array

of organizations and compa-

nies, including the United

Nations, Royal Caribbean

cruise line and American

Airlines, have mobilized to

send in food, water, genera-

tors, roof tarps, diapers,

flashlights and other sup-

plies.

As the eye of the storm

churned about 330 miles

south-southwest of Nan-

tucket, Mass., officials in

North Carolina expressed

relief Friday afternoon that

the damage was not worse —

as well as concern that hun-

dreds of residents might be

trapped on Ocracoke, a nar-

row sliver of an island be-

tween Pamlico Sound and

the Atlantic Ocean, after wa-

ter inundated homes.

“Finally, Hurricane Dori-

an has left North Carolina —

and we’re getting a look at

the damage that it brought,”

Gov. Roy Cooper said at a

Friday afternoon news con-

ference.

About 800 people re-

mained on the island during

the storm, Cooper said, and

many homes and buildings

were under water.

The U.S. Coast Guard

airlifted a 79-year-old man in

need of immediate medical

attention from the island,

and Hyde County officials

announced plans to airlift

any residents who needed to

evacuate from Ocracoke to a

shelter in Washington

County, where they would

have access to food, power

and medical supplies.

“If you wish to leave start

preparing now,” Hyde

County instructed residents

on Twitter. “We will release

times to go to the airport

when we have it.”

Early Friday, the Na-

tional Weather Service in

Morehead City declared a

flash-flood emergency for

Hyde and Dare counties,

warning residents that rap-

idly rising floodwaters from

the Pamlico Sound were ex-

pected to inundate the first

floors of homes and urging

them to retreat to a higher

level.

While South Carolina

and the lower coast of North

Carolina were spared the

brunt of the storm as it

churned offshore, there were

widespread flooding and

multiple tornadoes. Coastal

highways and shopping

thoroughfares flooded.

Winds blew portions of the

roof off the Bogue Shores ho-

tel in Atlantic Beach. A

Cedar Island gas station was

submerged under several

feet of water.

Across the Carolinas,

more than 220,000 homes

and businesses were with-

out power.

South Carolina Gov.

Henry McMaster on Friday

lifted the mandatory evacu-

ation orders for all coastal

residents, urging them to be

patient and expect lengthy

travel times, blocked road-

ways and detours as they

made their way back to the

coast.

As cleanup crews fanned

out across the coast to clear

roads of downed trees and

debris, power companies

worked to repair power lines,

and businesses in the his-

toric city of Charleston and

along the coast began to re-

open.

Dorian swamps Outer Banks, moves on

THE BOGUE SHORES hotel in Atlantic Beach, N.C., lost much of its roof as Hurricane Dorian struck Fri-

day. In the Bahamas, relief supplies began to arrive, and efforts are underway to evacuate hard-hit islands.

Tom CopelandAssociated Press

Hurricane makes

landfall in North

Carolina, severely

flooding the islands.

By Jenny Jarvie

WASHINGTON — The
Supreme Court is weighing a
fast-track appeal from the
Trump administration that
seeks to close the door to
nearly all migrants who re-
quest asylum at the south-
ern border. And once again,
the justices are being asked
to decide a far-reaching legal
question on a rushed basis,
without the usual oral argu-
ments or months of deliber-
ation.
Since 1980, U.S. law has
promised those who flee per-
secution and violence in
their home country a right to
at least apply for asylum
here. But on July 16, the
Trump administration an-
nounced a new rule that
would declare ineligible
those who traveled through
Mexico and did not seek asy-
lum there.
The emergency appeal
filed late last month on be-
half of Atty. Gen. William
Barr asks the justices to set
aside lower court orders
blocking the rule and allow it
to be enforced immediately.
A decision could come with-
in a week.
If the court’s conserva-
tives agree and grant Barr’s
appeal, it would be the latest
example of how the Trump
administration is making
major changes in the execu-
tion of laws while bypassing
Congress and avoiding
months or even years of
fighting in lower federal
courts.
Normally, the high court
agrees to review and decide
a legal question only after a
case has been decided by a
federal district judge and a
federal appeals court.
But increasingly in the
Trump era, the justices are
deciding major issues by
acting on emergency ap-
peals filed after one of the
administration’s new rules is
blocked in a lower court.
In July, for example,
Trump won the right to di-
vert billions of dollars that
Congress appropriated for
the military to begin build-
ing the U.S.-Mexico border
wall he promised in his 2016
campaign. Congress had re-
fused to pay for the wall,
which candidate Trump
said that Mexico would pay
for, so he declared he had the
emergency authority to
transfer money from other
departments and agencies.
A federal judge in Oak-
land and the 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals blocked
the transfer as illegal. But
acting on an emergency ap-

peal from Solicitor Gen. Noel

Francisco, the high court

voted 5 to 4 to lift the lower

court decisions in Trump vs.

Sierra Club. The justices did

not hear arguments in the

case and did not issue a ma-

jority opinion or a dissent.

University of Texas law

professor Stephen Vladeck

says Francisco has been “un-

usually aggressive in seeking

emergency or extraordinary

relief ” from the justices, and

he has been winning.

“I think there’s no ques-

tion there has been a shift in

how at least a majority of the

justices approach such ap-

plications,” he said.

In the past, it was rare for

the government’s top law-

yers to ask the high court to

intervene and rule in a pend-

ing case. Under the court’s

rules, lawyers filing such ap-

peals have to argue that

their clients face a serious or

irreparable harm if the high

court fails to act. And the

justices have often said they

are reluctant to decide an

important legal question on

a rushed basis.

Irv Gornstein, director of

the Supreme Court Institute

at Georgetown’s law school,

cited several reasons for the

change.

“We have a president who

is pursuing many more con-

troversial and divisive poli-

cies than his predecessors.

We have lower courts that

are skeptical of both the

president and his policies.

We have a solicitor general’s

office that is optimistic that

taking issues to the high

court will bear fruit. And we

have a Supreme Court that

is ready to act at an early

stage when it thinks the

lower courts have gone off

the rails,” he said.

The asylum law is now at

the center of Trump’s immi-

gration battle. The law says,

“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 ...

may apply for asylum.”

Trump and his adminis-

tration have chafed at this

open-door policy. Officials

say it permits tens of thou-

sands of migrants to get a

foothold in this country

while their asylum claims

work their way slowly

through the immigration

courts. They say only a small

percentage will finally win

their claims.

The Justice Department

told the court it had more

than 436,000 asylum claims

pending.

But rather than per-

suade Congress to change

the law, Trump has sought

to weaken it through new

regulations.

On July 16, the adminis-

tration announced what it

called an “interim final rule”

that would deem migrants

ineligible for asylum if they

had traveled across Mexico

without seeking asylum

there.

A federal judge in San

Francisco and the 9th Cir-

cuit blocked the new rule

from taking effect, ruling

that it conflicted with the

promise of the asylum law.

But Francisco filed an

appeal Aug. 26 that faulted

the lower court judges as

“second-guessing” the ad-

ministration’s policy and

urged the high court to allow

the new rule to go into effect.

It will “screen out asylum

seekers who declined to re-

quest protection at the first

opportunity” in Mexico, and

will “alleviate a crushing

burden on the U.S. asylum

system,” he said in Barr vs.

East Bay Sanctuary Cov-

enant.

Francisco pointed to pro-

visions in the asylum law

that say immigrants can be

sent to a “safe third coun-

try.” He also noted the attor-

ney general was authorized

to set “other conditions or

limitations” on asylum.

Lawyers for the Ameri-

can Civil Liberties Union

said the court “should not

permit such a tectonic

change to the U.S. asylum

law.” If put into effect, the

rule “would eliminate virtu-

ally all asylum at the south-

ern border,” they said in a re-

sponse filed Wednesday.

“The ban is a blatant end-

run around the scheme Con-

gress created” and rests on

an “expansive view of execu-

tive authority to rewrite the

statute.”

The court has no dead-

line or timetable for acting

on the appeal. But usually,

the justices take some ac-

tion within a week or two af-

ter receiving briefs from

both sides.

Justices may fast-track battle over asylum law

Trump administration

seeks intervention in

another pending case.

By David G. Savage

THE WHITE HOUSEwants to require asylum seek-

ers who arrive through Mexico to apply there first.

Genaro MolinaLos Angeles Times

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