The Obama administration got some bad news on Tuesday when a federal appeals court upheld an injunction against the president’s executive orders on immigration. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit concurred with the lower court ruling that Obama had likely broken the law by taking unilateral action on immigration reform. The three-judge panel ruled 2-1 against the administration, setting the state for an eventual Supreme Court decision down the line.
“We live in a nation governed by a system of checks and balances, and the president’s attempt to bypass the will of the American people was successfully checked again today,” said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Abbott was the first state governor to advance the idea of challenging the executive orders in court. He was soon joined by twenty-five other states in filing a suit that has, thus far, prevented amnesty from being implemented.
The rulings have no effect on Obama’s 2012 Dreamers program, and they do not prevent him from exercising “discretion” when it comes to deportation. They do prevent his administration from granting driver’s licenses and work permits without going through the proper legal channels. That, two courts have now decided, goes beyond presidential authority and represents an unconstitutional override of congressional law.
The ruling favors not just to those who think illegal immigration is a threat to America, but also those who think Obama exceeded his power when he unleashed the amnesty order. Of course, those people are usually one in the same. Liberals can’t admit that Obama went too far because they agree with the aims of his amnesty. They don’t see it as a problem that the president essentially made one of the biggest power grabs in the history of the White House.
Thank goodness there are still judges who can look at the law and make judgments according to that precedent. Too many of our nation’s courthouses are presided over by activists more concerned with pushing an ideology than they are with upholding the law. That is the main concern as this case prepares to go to the Supreme Court, where decisions are made with an eye towards politics as much as they are with an eye towards the Constitution. Hopefully, this case will be an exception to that.
In the meantime, count on Obama and the Democrats to try and get their version of immigration reform through the congressional process. That’s (probably) not going to happen as long as Republicans have the majority, but who knows? Boehner and McConnell have been willing to make backbreaking concessions to the Democrats, guided almost unerringly by the media’s opinion of them. If they give the Democrats what they want with immigration reform – an even bigger possibility after the 2016 election – then all of this will have been for nothing.
For now, though, let’s just savor Obama’s defeat. It’s the little things, after all.
Comments are closed.