Judge rules U.S. can't expel migrant families using public health law

A federal judge on Thursday directed the Biden administration to stop using a public health law invoked at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic to expel migrant families with children from the U.S.-Mexico border.

Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia certified all migrant families in U.S. border custody as class members in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, and barred the government from expelling them under the public health edict, known as Title 42.

Sullivan paused his order for 14 days, giving the Biden administration two weeks to retool its use of the Title 42 authority, which was first invoked under former President Donald Trump in March 2020.