Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-954_7l48.pdf
Page Number: 16

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

11 

Opinion of the Court 

action taken pursuant to sections 1221 through 1232.  Or it 
could have worded section 1252(f )(1) similarly to the imme-
diately  adjacent  section  1252(g),  which  provides  that  “no 
court shall have jurisdiction to hear any cause or claim by
or on behalf of any alien arising from the decision or action
by the Attorney General to commence proceedings, adjudi-
cate cases, or execute removal orders against [the alien].”
(Emphasis added.)  But Congress did neither.  Instead, it 
constructed  a  carefully  worded  provision  depriving  the 
lower  courts  of  power  to  “enjoin  or  restrain  the  operation 
of ” certain sections of the statute, and it entitled that pro-
vision a “[l]imit on injunctive relief.” 

Our prior cases have already embraced this straightfor-
ward conclusion.  Most relevantly, the Court previously en-
countered a virtually identical situation in Nielsen v. Preap, 
586 U. S. ___ (2019).  There, as here, the plaintiffs sought
declaratory as well as injunctive relief in their complaint, 
and there, as here, the District Court awarded only the lat-
ter.  Yet this Court proceeded to reach the merits of the suit,
notwithstanding the District Court’s apparent violation of 
section  1252(f )(1),  by  reasoning  that  “[w]hether  the  [Dis-
trict] [C]ourt had jurisdiction to enter such an injunction is 
irrelevant because the District Court had jurisdiction to en-
tertain the plaintiffs’ request for declaratory relief.”  Id., at 
___–___  (ALITO,  J.,  joined  by  ROBERTS,  C.  J.,  and 
KAVANAUGH, J.) (slip op., at 8–9); see also Jennings v. Ro-
driguez,  583  U. S.  ___,  ___  (2018)  (BREYER,  J.,  joined  by 
Ginsburg and SOTOMAYOR, JJ., dissenting) (slip op., at 31) 
(concluding that “a court could order declaratory relief ” not-
withstanding section 1252(f )(1)).  Our disposition in Preap
is  inconsistent  with  an  interpretation  of  the  limitation  in
section  1252(f )(1)  that  strips  the  lower  courts  of  subject
matter  jurisdiction.3   And  previous  statements  from  this 

—————— 

3 JUSTICE BARRETT  notes  that  Preap  involved  consolidated  cases,  and 
that in one of the two cases the District Court granted declaratory as well