Donald Trump appealed – directly to the Supreme Court — the most recent California district court’s ruling preventing the him from enacting his own executive immigration policy, this time about President Barack Obama’s executive orders on “Dreamers.” Legally, Trump should win, and the dreamers should lose (the politics of the issue will be left to Congressional negotiations and 2018 midterms). Three reasons show why the Supreme Court is likely to reverse U.S. District Judge William Alsup, invalidate the injunction, and reinstate President’s Trump’s reversal of ex-President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). First, the Supreme Court has already twice reversed Alsup in this very case on preliminary matters. Second, the new-found habit of district court judges issuing national injunctions over parties not present in the case invites a dangerous venue-shopping tactic already disfavored by the Supreme Court. Third, the Constitution is quite clear: the president can reverse any prior unilateral executive action of a prior president, especially an action as suspect as Obama’s unilateral executive action in DACA. This danger to the tripartite balance of power, the commitment to Constitutional constraint, and the rule of law will not go unexamined by the Supreme Court. A little factual background. In 2012, President Obama, facing re-election and a Republican Congress, issued an executive action without legislative approval known as DACA. DACA gave undocumented immigrants, who were mostly brought here as minors, temporary amnesty from arrest, prosecution or deportation, authorized work permits, and extended federal spending and benefits on their behalf. In 2017, Trump terminated DACA, but… [Read full story]
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