Supreme Court Justices Roberts and Coney Barrett split with conservatives to give Biden a border win

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• The Supreme Court cleared the way for federal agents to cut through barbed wire that Texas put up along the southern border.
• Justices John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett sided with the court’s 3 liberals in the 5-4 decision.
• It’s a huge win for the Biden administration in its border fight with Texas.

Two of the Supreme Court’s conservative justices just handed Joe Biden a major win at the southern border.

The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for US Border Patrol officials to cut through razor-wire fencing that Texas put up along the Rio Grande River.

The 5-4 ruling is a huge win for the Biden administration, with Justices John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett splitting with the court’s other conservatives and siding with liberal justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.

Monday’s ruling comes after the Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to vacate an injunction that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals imposed last month, which temporarily paused a lower-court ruling that allowed federal agents to cut through Texas’ razor-wire fencing along the border.

The appeals court put that decision on hold while it reviewed the case, prompting the Biden administration to ask the Supreme Court to intervene.

The US Justice Department alleged in a court filing that Texas National Guard troops had erected razor-wire barriers along a 2.5-mile stretch of the US-Mexico border, as well as new fencing farther inland.

“That fencing further restricts Border Patrol’s ability to reach the river in particular areas,” the Justice Department said.

It added that Texas’ actions “demonstrate an escalation of the State’s measures to block Border Patrol’s ability to patrol or even to surveil the border and be in a position to respond to emergencies.”