[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] on Tuesday ruled [opinion, PDF] that children facing deportation proceedings may not file a class action suit to determine whether they are entitled to an attorney as a due process right. The opinion reversed in part a ruling by Judge Thomas Zilly that determined [ACLU report] the federal courts had jurisdiction to hear the class action lawsuit on constitutional grounds. The three-judge panel ruled instead that the Immigration and Nationality Act [text] exclusive review process applied, necessitating that each individual plaintiff file an appeal in the federal court after all deportation proceedings were exhausted. Interest groups vying on behalf of those facing deportation said it is unreasonable to expect children to navigate the courts to avoid deportation, and the court commiserated. Judge Mary Margaret McKeown wrote in her concurrence to a unanimous decision that it is within the purview of the legislature and executive branches to extend to potential deportees the right to counsel, but she opined that little is likely to be done because the issue lacks “[m]oney and resolve.”

Immigrants’ rights and abilities to participate in American governance and judicial proceedings have been hotly contested recently. In July a Kansas judge ruled [JURIST report] that the state must count thousands of votes from people who registered without providing citizenship documents. In April Assistant Professor Michael Morley at Barry University School of Law discussed [JURIST op-ed] a Supreme Court ruling that dealt with voting rights and illegal immigration. Last November New Jersey lawmakers advanced a bill [JURIST report] that allowed undocumented immigrants to obtain New Jersey driver’s licenses. Last January the US House of Representatives passed [JURIST report] a $40 billion funding bill for the Department of homeland Security that included amendments to repeal two key facets to President Barack Obama’s immigration action. In 2014 Obama announced [JURIST report] executive actions on immigration that would allow 4.7 million undocumented immigrants to stay in the US.