The 4-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that blocked President Obama’s executive actions on immigration will shape this fall’s political debates, Professor Anil Kalhan said in the Philadelphia Inquirer on June 25.

The tied decision left in place an appeals court ruling that blocked a program that would have shielded millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation and allow them to legally work in the U.S.

Kalhan said the ruling “sharpens what’s at stake in the upcoming presidential election,” which has already featured pointed disagreements between presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

In an interview with Public Radio International on June 23, Kalhan predicted “a lot of complicated and messy litigation ahead in the lower courts.”

Kalhan, an authority on immigration law, said the lack of a ninth Supreme Court justice will inevitably affect immigrants’ perceptions of the judicial appointment process.

"Immigrant communities will certainly have reason to see the significance of the politicization of the appointment process," Kalhan said.