The Trump administration was dealt a major setback in its immigration plans after an appeals court torched it as Schrödinger-esque.
A Denver-based federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected the Trump administration's push to jail immigrants in the U.S. without a bond hearing. In his opinion, Judge Richard Federico likened the Trump administration's reasoning to a famous quantum physics paradox.
The case centered around the question of whether an immigrant living in the country's interior can be detained without a bond hearing while fighting their removal.
Under previous administrations, the government detained people without bond only if they were stopped at the border seeking entry. Last year, the Trump administration broadened its reading of the law to detain immigrants who crossed years ago and have lived here ever since.
The Trump administration leaned on narrow jargon applying to an "applicant for admission," which is someone never formally let in. But the same provision also requires that the person be "seeking admission," which means they're actively asking to come in, and only applies to people at the border.
In arguing that they meant the same thing, the Trump administration made what Federico described as an "interpretive quantum leap." He also noted that the Trump administration "glosses" over the complications in its interpretation and failed to provide "an exceedingly persuasive argument" to justify it.
"Like Schrödinger's cat is simultaneously dead and alive, 'applicant for admission' simultaneously takes on both its ordinary and statutory meanings in the government's hands," Federico wrote. "As far as we are aware, no other phrase in the United States Code has this Schrödinger-esque property."