U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, a Biden appointee in Massachusetts, issued an administrative stay preserving Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Ethiopian nationals while the court considers whether plaintiffs can pursue constitutional claims in the wake of a recent Supreme Court decision.
The order in African Communities Together v. Mullin pauses the Trump administration's planned wind-down of Ethiopia's TPS designation. The action follows the Supreme Court's June 25 ruling in Mullin v. Doe, a 6-3 decision that significantly limited lower courts' ability to hear Administrative Procedure Act (APA) challenges to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) decisions that designate or terminate TPS.
Murphy's stay arrives after plaintiffs revised their complaint to emphasize constitutional claims — a route the Supreme Court left open after narrowing APA-based challenges. The judge's order maintains the status quo while the court evaluates whether those constitutional claims may proceed.
U.S. President Donald Trump takes questions from the media during a bilateral meeting with President of Lebanon Joseph Aoun in the Oval Office of the White House on July 21, 2026 in Washington, DC. U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris attends the opening ceremony for the Justice Stephen G. Breyer Community Learning Center on Courts and the Constitution at the federal courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., March 25, 2025.
Reaction From DHS
DHS General Counsel James Percival sharply criticized the order, characterizing it as inconsistent with the Supreme Court's guidance. Percival also invoked a prior dispute involving Judge Murphy: in May 2025, Murphy intervened in a deportation flight to South Sudan, a move DHS said diverted ICE personnel to a U.S. military base in Djibouti under difficult conditions. Those allegations remain contested and were cited by DHS in its public response.
“Remember when that district judge rerouted a plane with child rapists headed for South Sudan? The judge made ICE land in Djibouti to face malaria and terrorist rocket attacks from Yemen,” Percival wrote on X, also known as Twitter.
Murphy's order came hours after Senior U.S. District Judge Patti Saris, also in Massachusetts, issued a temporary administrative stay in a separate case that seeks to block termination of TPS for South Sudan. Both cases were brought by the advocacy group African Communities Together alongside individual TPS holders.
Background And Stakes
The litigation began after then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced in December 2025 that conditions in Ethiopia no longer justified TPS and that the designation would terminate after a 60-day wind-down. Under that notice, protections were set to expire on Feb. 13, 2026, before Judge Murphy's latest intervention.
A U.S. Department Of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection sign is displayed at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Headquarters on May 18, 2025 in Washington, DC.
TPS for Ethiopians was first designated by the Biden administration in December 2022, when then-Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas cited armed conflict, widespread violence, human-rights concerns and food insecurity. Protections took effect Dec. 12, 2022, and were later extended through Dec. 12, 2025. DHS estimated roughly 26,700 Ethiopian nationals in the United States could qualify for TPS.
The rulings in Massachusetts reflect a broader post-Supreme Court legal scramble: federal officials argue that Mullin curtailed most APA challenges to TPS decisions, while plaintiffs and some lower-court judges say constitutional claims remain viable and deserve further review.
Fox News Digital and other outlets have sought comment from African Communities Together and DHS officials. The cases are likely to proceed as courts weigh the scope of constitutional challenges following the Supreme Court's decision.
