Abstract

This Article explores the weakened foundations of plenary power as a coherent doctrine in immigration, and asserts that a continued if limited role for the doctrine exists in the national security context. With reference to recent litigation over the Trump travel bans, the Article calls for a two-tiered level of review of challenged immigration action: 1) a searching evidentiary inquiry regarding the central motivation behind the action, and 2) a more deferential inquiry into the action’s constitutionality when the action was driven primarily by national security interests.

KJ