The Guardian, 14 October 2021:
The federal government is seeking to overturn a landmark high court decision that deemed Aboriginal Australians cannot be aliens and cannot be deported.
The Love and Thoms ruling in February 2020 ranks as the high court’s most significant constitutional decision in recent years, with the narrow four-to-three judgment prompting Coalition conservatives to publicly lobby for black-letter judges to be appointed.
Just a year and a half later, the commonwealth has revealed it wants the precedent to be overturned after a New Zealand man tried to fight deportation using the Love and Thoms precedent.....
In June 2020 Amanda Stoker, now the assistant attorney general, noted in a research paper that given the two retirements “there is a significant possibility that a reconstituted bench would reconsider the decision in the event of challenge”. In its submissions, the commonwealth revealed that the immigration minister, Alex Hawke, and home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, will seek leave “to the extent necessary, to argue that Love was wrongly decided”.....
[High Court Justice] Keane said it would be difficult for the high court to hear the case in 2021, given the number of cases already delayed by Covid. Keane agreed to remove the constitutional aspects of the case to the high court, giving interveners until 22 November to join the case, likely to be heard in the new year.
Read the full article here.
