Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch shocked Trump supporters this week by casting the tie-breaking vote against the president's efforts to deport criminal aliens.
The decision is a loss for the Trump administration, which has emphasized stricter enforcement of immigration law. But Charles W. "Rocky" Rhodes at South Texas College of Law Houston says Gorsuch simply ruled the law was poorly written.
“Justice Gorsuch is really just following in Justice Antonin Scalia's footsteps and being concerned about whether our laws are clear enough that individuals will be able to understand when they have been violated,” he says.
Rhodes expects more of the same from Gorsuch moving forward.
“It should be a consistent scheme of judicial methodology that you are not trying to figure out who wins or who loses, these principals have to be applied in all cases.”
Over time, Rhodes says conservatives will get what they paid for with Trump's appointment.