Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-587_5ifl.pdf
Page Number: 61.0

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

23 

Opinion of THOMAS, J. 

State  Farm,  DACA  is  unlawful.  Neither  State  Farm  nor 
any other decision cited by the majority addresses what an
agency must do when it has inherited an unlawful program.
It is perhaps for this reason that, rather than responding 
with authority of its own, the majority simply opts to excise
the “unlawful policy” aspect from its discussion. 

B 
Second, the majority claims that DHS erred by failing to
take into account the reliance interests of DACA recipients. 
Ante, at 23–26.  But reliance interests are irrelevant when 
assessing  whether  to  rescind  an  action  that  the  agency
lacked statutory authority to take.  No amount of reliance 
could ever justify continuing a program that allows DHS to 
wield  power  that  neither  Congress  nor  the  Constitution 
gave it.  Any such decision would be “not in accordance with 
law”  or  “in  excess  of  statutory  . . .  authority.”  5  U. S. C. 
§§706(2)(A), (C).  Accordingly, DHS would simply be engag-
ing in yet another exercise of unlawful power if it used reli-
ance  interests  to  justify  continuing  the  initially  unlawful
program, and a court would be obligated to set aside that
action.15 

Even if reliance interests were sometimes relevant when 
rescinding an ultra vires action, the rescission still would 
not be arbitrary and capricious here.  Rather, as the major-
ity does not dispute, the rescission is consistent with how
deferred action has always  worked.  As a general matter,
deferred action creates no rights—it exists at the Govern-
ment’s discretion and can be revoked at any time.  See App. 

—————— 

15 The  majority  contends  that  this  argument  does  not  carry  force  be-
cause the rescission implemented a winddown period during which re-
cipients would continue to receive benefits.  But whether DHS’ decision 
to  wind  down  DACA  was  lawful  is  a  separate  question  from  whether
DHS was required to consider reliance interests before discontinuing an
unlawful program.