TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Mar 19, 2026

The U.S. Supreme Court on March 4 ruled unanimously that federal appeals courts must defer to immigration judges’ findings when evaluating asylum claims, applying the "substantial evidence" standard rather than conducting independent reviews. The case arose from an El Salvadoran family whose asylum application was denied, with courts upholding that denial as long as it was backed by reasonable evidence. Bloomberg Law reports that the ruling, written by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, arrives as the Trump administration fires immigration judges and instructs replacements to grant asylum only rarely.