In politics, folks on one side of an issue love to give speeches telling their opponents and rivals what they should do. Speakers will grandstand with phrases like “I call on my opponent to reject position X and join me on position Y.” Even when conceding a campaign a losing candidate will often “call on” or “demand” that the guy (or girl) who just beat them drop their winning agenda and suddenly come to their side.
Such things often get big applause from their constituents and supporters.
Rarely does it work … err … I mean, it never works.
Other times, politicians try to force their agendas sometimes through procedural means. Current examples would be the debt ceiling battle that took place between Kevin McCarthy and Joe Biden. Another example would be how Tommy Tuberville is holding up military appointments and promotions that go through the Senate singlehandedly because he doesn’t like the military’s abortion policy.
Then there is the method where states sue the federal government to get their way. Republicans had some success challenging various parts of the ACA, aka, Obamacare. Democrats had some success stopping Trump’s racist travel bans, forcing him to water down the language repeatedly to get to a compromise that Trump was unwilling to directly negotiate over.
But today, The Supreme Court decided they needed to pump the brakes on some of these tactics.
Texas and Louisiana decided that Joe Biden’s immigration policy concerning the deportation of illegal immigrants was wrong. Biden and his administration contended that with 11 million or so undocumented immigrants in America, it is literally impossible to deport them all. So, Joe Biden and his administration take the stance that they need to prioritize and decide who to go after based on the level of threat or detriment they might pose to the country just by being here.
Texas and Louisiana disagreed. They contended that the policy conflicted with immigration law and that Joe should be doing things the way they say he should. Arrest and deport everyone — all the time — no matter what it takes — cause we say so.
The Supreme Court essentially told the two states to go home and stop pretending you are a federal government.
The Supreme Court, in an 8-1 ruling on Friday, revived the Biden administration’s immigration guidelines that prioritize which noncitizens to deport, dismissing a challenge from two Republican state attorneys general who argued the policies conflicted with immigration law.
The court said the states did not have the “standing,” or the legal right, to sue in the first place in a decision that will further clarify when a state can challenge a federal policy in court going forward.
Brett Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion. Only Justice Samuel Alito dissented.
The ruling is a major victory for President Joe Biden and the White House, who have consistently argued the need to prioritize who they detain and deport given limited resources. By ruling against the states, the court tightened the rules concerning when states may challenge federal policies with which they disagree.
Kavanaugh wrote, “They want a federal court to order the Executive Branch to alter its arrest policies so as to make more arrests. Federal courts have not traditionally entertained that kind of lawsuit; indeed, the States cite no precedent for a lawsuit like this.”
Perhaps this ruling might slow down state’s zeal to dictate to the federal government what they should be doing — trying to lead them around by the nose, so to speak. But, as politics and history has shown us, that is a doubtful outcome.
