Not a death blow by requiring the immediate deportation of anywhere from five to twenty million illegals, but it brings to a sudden, screeching halt the illegal legalization process that would give them all benefits, goodies, Social Security numbers, and....voting privileges.
Or, at least, it's supposed to. My money would be on the White House completely ignoring the ruling:
A federal judge late Monday halted President Obama’s deportation amnesty, ruling he overstepped his powers in trying to grant legal status and “benefits and privileges” to millions of illegal [alien]s, in a stunning decision that chides the president and throws the White House’s plans into disarray just a day before applications were to be accepted.
The White House said it will appeal Judge Andrew S. Hanen’s decision, but it’s unclear whether the case could reach the circuit court in New Orleans or even the Supreme Court before Wednesday, which is when the Homeland Security Department had planned to begin accepting the first applications under the new amnesty.
Not a good plan. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has a 15-8 Republican majority, and while the SCOTUS is still the razor-thin 5-4 GOP advantage, Obamnesty is another of those egregious Obama overreaches that the High Court has tended to unanimously slap down over the last few years. Which is why I'd still go with the White House ignoring Judge Hanen's ruling.
Judge Hanen was a Bush43 appointee, in case your were wondering.
“The DHS was not given any ‘discretion by law’ to give 4.3 million removable aliens what the DHS itself labels as ‘legal presence,’” Judge Hanen wrote in issuing an injunction. “In fact, the law mandates that these illegally-present individuals be removed. The DHS has adopted a new rule that substantially changes both the status and employability of millions. These changes go beyond mere enforcement or even non-enforcement of this nation’s immigration scheme.”
"Law"? "Law"? Why, Judge Hanen, did you not know that the law is whatever Barack Obama says it is?
That "we can't wait," and "If Congress won't act, he will," and "he's got a pen and a phone"? And how people who dare to stand against The One have a habit of "disappearing"?
Guess the judge didn't get that particular memo.
Thank God.
In the immediate sense, the ruling will become a major part of the debate over homeland security funding that has roiled Capitol Hill, with Republicans insisting Mr. Obama’s actions were unconstitutional and should be halted through Congress’s spending power, and Democrats backing their president by filibustering to block funding for the Homeland Security Department altogether.
In other words, Judge Hanen may have saved majority Republicans from a constitutional confrontation with the White House they desperately want to avoid. Now Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader McConnell and the rest of the GOP leadership can hide behind Judge Hanen's decision rather than having to take what they still inexplicably see as a political risky and hazardous stand in defense of the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law against a rampaging dictator who has and is brazenly demolishing both.
The correct result via incorrect means, in short. T'would be far preferable to have what is supposed to be the preeminent branch of the federal government - Congress - slap down the Imperial Executive instead of what is supposed to be the weakest branch - the Judiciary. That's what We, The People, elected this particular Congress to do back on November 4th, after all. Given the mercurial nature of the corrupt Imperial Judiciary, where results often have nothing to do with the Constitution but everything to do with partisan affiliation (which is why I usually cite the partisan breakdown of appellate courts), that's an awfully weak reed on which to lean.
But we'll take it, since we have little choice.
And when The One declares, "Andrew Hanen has made his decision, now let him enforce it"? Let's just say the Obamadrama may be just beginning.
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