Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich urged a seemingly sympathetic Supreme Court Feb. 23 to allow a group of 13 states to defend the so-called public charge rule that screens out potentially government-dependent immigrants, after the Biden administration declined to do so. The public charge rule, which had fallen into disuse, was revived by the Trump administration in 2019, over vehement left-wing opposition. The rule allowed the U.S. government to reject would-be immigrants who were deemed likely to consume public benefits such as food stamps, housing aid, and Medicaid. Although critics say the extensively litigated pro-taxpayer rule is xenophobic and discriminates against poor aliens, the public-charge principle—the idea that immigrants should have to prove they can survive without becoming wards of the government—has been part of the American experience for centuries. The Biden administration changed course, dropping the immigrant self-sufficiency rule, though it announced recently it was drafting a new version. “Without any …