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ByMarkSherman The Associated Press WASHINGTON A short- handed and deeply divided Supreme Court deadlocked Thursday on President Barack Obama's immigra- tion plan to help millions living in the U.S. illegally, effectively killing the plan for the rest of his presidency and raising the stakes even further for the November elections. The hotly debated direc- tion of America's national immigration policy as well as the balance of power on the high court now will be determined in large part by the presidential and con- gressional elections. Immi- gration and the court va- cancy created by Justice Antonin Scalia's death in February already were fea- turing prominently in the campaign. Scalia's vote likely would have meant an outright rul- ing against Obama's immi- gration expansion rather than the 4-4 tie, a much more significant defeat for the president and immi- grant advocates. Democrat Hillary Clinton declaredthataspresidentshe would work to restore the programsandgofurther.Re- publicanDonaldTrumpsaid hewouldmakesureObama's "unconstitutional actions" never came back. In another major case af- fected by Scalia's absence, the court delivered a sur- prisingly strong defense of affirmative action in higher education in a dispute over admissions policies at the University of Texas. Justice Anthony Ken- nedy's majority opinion in the 4-3 decision upheld the Texas admissions plan and reaffirmed that colleges can take account of race in ad- missions in pursuit of a di- verse student body. Sca- lia, long an opponent of affirmative action, had sug- gested during arguments in December that some black students would benefit from being at a "slower-track school," instead of Texas' flagship campus in Austin. Justice Elena Kagan did not take part in the case because she worked on it while at the Justice Depart- ment. On immigration, the tie is not likely to lead to an in- crease in deportations since the president retains ample discretion to decide whom to deport. But the ruling sty- mies his effort to bring peo- ple "out from the shadows" by giving them the right to work legally in the U.S. One of the Obama pro- grams would have pro- tected the parents of chil- dren who are in the coun- try legally. The other was an expansion of a program that benefits people who were brought to the U.S. as children. Obama de- cided to move forward on his own after Republicans won control of the Senate in 2014 and the chances for an immigration overhaul, already remote, were fur- ther damaged. Obama said Thursday's impasse "takes us further from the country we aspire to be." The candidates vying to replace him split as plainly as the justices. Clinton, the presump- tive Democratic nominee, said that if she is elected she will defend the Obama pro- grams "and do everything possible under the law to go further to protect families." Republican Trump, on the other hand, said the court outcome "blocked one of the most unconsti- tutional actions ever under- taken by a president" and the split decision 'makes clear what's at stake in No- vember." And the people directly affected? Mexican immigrant Cris- tina Molina of New York City, said she was frustrated and upset. "I feel like I'm in limbo," Molina, 48, said through an interpreter. She has lived in the United States for 23 years and said she would have been eligi- ble for one of the programs Obama announced in 2014. A Supreme Court tie sets no national precedent but leaves in place a ruling by a lower court. The justices issued a one-sentence opin- ion, with no further com- ment. A full nine-justice court agreed to hear the case in January, but by the time of the arguments in late April, Scalia had died. That left eight justices to decide the case, and the court presum- ably split along liberal-con- servative lines, although no breakdown was announced. The federal appeals court in New Orleans had said the Obama adminis- tration lacked the author- ity to shield up to 4 million immigrants from deporta- tion and make them eligible for work permits without approval from Congress. That ruling now remains in place. Texas had led 26 Repub- lican-dominated states in challenging the Obama ini- tiatives in court. EXECUTIVE ACTIONS Supreme Court rules against Obama's immigration plans ANDREWHARNIK—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS President Barack Obama speaks in the White House briefing room in Washington on Thursday about the Supreme Court decision on immigration. By Mark Sherman The Associated Press WASHINGTON In a narrow victory for affirmative ac- tion, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a Univer- sity of Texas program that takes account of race in deciding whom to admit, an important national de- cision that was cemented by the death of Justice An- tonin Scalia. The justices' 4-3 deci- sion in favor of the Texas program ends an 8-year- old lawsuit that included a previous trip to the Su- preme Court, filed by a white Texan who was de- nied admission to the uni- versity. Justice Anthony Ken- nedy said in his major- ity opinion that the Texas plan complied with earlier court rulings that allow colleges to consider race in pursuit of diversity on campus. "The university has thus met its burden of showing that the admis- sions policy it used ... was narrowly tailored," Ken- nedy wrote. The court's three more- conservative justices dis- sented, and Justice Samuel Alito read portions of his 51-page dissent, more than twice as long as Kennedy's opinion, from the bench. "This is affirmative ac- tion gone wild," Alito said. The university "relies on a series of unsupported and noxious racial assump- tions." In a separate dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas repeated his view that the Constitution outlaws any use of race in higher edu- cation admissions. With the death of Scalia in February and with Jus- tice Elena Kagan sitting out the case because she worked on it while serving in the Justice Department, just seven justices partici- pated in the decision. Scalia, long opposed to affirmative action, almost certainly would have voted with his fellow conserva- tives. He was criticized for suggesting at arguments in December that some black students would bene- fit from being at a "slower- track school," instead of Texas' flagship campus in Austin. At the very least, Scal- ia's vote could have made the result a tie and limited the high court to issuing a one-sentence opinion up- holding the lower court ruling in favor of Texas. In that instance, the re- sult would have been the same but without the Su- preme Court endorsement offered by Kennedy Thurs- day. The university consid- ers race among many fac- tors in admitting the last quarter of incoming fresh- men classes. The state fills most of its freshman class by guaranteeing admission tostudentswhograduatein the top 10 percent of their Texas high school class. The high court ruled in the case of Abigail Fisher, a white Texan who was de- nied admission to the uni- versity in 2008. She con- tended she was rejected while African-American applicants with lower grades and test scores were admitted. The school said Fisher, who did not graduate in the top 10 percent of her class, would not have been admitted with or without race as a factor. But offi- cials did conditionally of- fer to allow her to transfer in as a sophomore if she maintained a 3.2 grade- point average at another public college in Texas. Instead, she went to Louisiana State Univer- sity, from which she grad- uated in 2012, and pursued her lawsuit. Fisher was re- cruited for the suit by Ed- ward Blum, an opponent of racial preferences who has been remarkably success- ful in persuading the Su- preme Court to hear cases challenging the use of race in education and politics. Blum was behind a ma- jor challenge to the land- mark Voting Rights Act that resulted in the court eviscerating a key pro- vision of the law, and he also led an unsuccessful challenge to states' wide- spread practice of count- ing all their residents, not just those eligible to vote, in drawing legislative dis- tricts. 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