Screenshot / YouTube CBS News, Cropped by Resist the Mainstream

Texas’ SB4 law that criminalizes illegal border crossings has been put on hold again, this time by the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals.

Just hours after the Supreme Court lifted a stay on the Texas law, the Fifth Circuit issued a 2-1 ruling late Tuesday, blocking the law from taking effect. 

Notably, this came right after conservative Justice Samuel Alito issued an order reinstating a temporary freeze on Monday.

SB4 has been in legal limbo since Governor Greg Abbott signed it into law back in December.

Fox News reports the Fifth Circuit is set to hear arguments in the case on Wednesday.

“A preliminary injunction is an extraordinary remedy that alters the status quo,” Judge Andrew Oldham wrote in the dissenting opinion from the Fifth Circuit. “A stay preserves the status quo while an appellate court reviews the lawfulness of that alteration.”

“Earlier today, the Supreme Court of the United States restored an administrative stay so our panel could review the State’s request for emergency relief under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 8,” he continued. “I would leave that stay in place pending tomorrow’s oral argument on the question.”

In the SCOTUS ruling on Tuesday, the justices wrote that “Texas Senate Bill 4 (S. B. 4) permits the state to arrest and remove to Mexico noncitizens who enter, attempt to enter, or reside in Texas.” 

“Before this Court intervenes on the emergency docket, the Fifth Circuit should be the first mover,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in the Supreme Court's decision.

“So far as I know, this Court has never reviewed the decision of a court of appeals to enter — or not enter — an administrative stay,” she wrote. “I would not get into the business. When entered, an administrative stay is supposed to be a short-lived prelude to the main event: a ruling on the motion for a stay pending appeal.” 

SCOTUS did not rule on the merits of the case.