SCOTUS Doesn't Abolish Separation of Powers - Yet

By Mark Krikorian on June 23, 2016

The Supreme Court split 4-4 on the 26-state lawsuit against Obama's amnesty decrees; the full text of the ruling is this: "The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court." (No tally was released, but obviously the Democrat justices voted with Obama and the Republicans — even Kennedy — voted against him.)

That means the lower court's decision to uphold the injunction remains in place, and the DAPA amnesty program (for illegal alien parents of U.S.-born kids) and the expansion of the DACA amnesty (for illegals who claim to have come here before age 16) remain on hold.

The case will now go all the way back down to the district court, where the actual merits of the case will be litigated (rather than the question of whether it should remain on hold pending such litigation). So in a year or two, it could well be back before the Supreme Court.

Despite the formulations used by Obama's semi-official organs in the mainstream media, the case has nothing to do with "protecting" people from deportation. As the president reaffirmed in his comments today, virtually all illegal aliens are formally exempt from deportation under the Priority Enforcement Program. The decrees at issue in the case, proclaimed in 2014, would have also granted millions of illegals work permits, Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, and eligibility for the EITC welfare program and various state-funded programs. It isn't a green card that can lead to citizenship, the granting which for now remains Congress's prerogative, but it is green card-lite.

The November election will now present an even starker choice: either a Republican president will rescind Obama's amnesty decree, or a Democratic one will appoint the fifth justice to affirm it. The importance of this case extends beyond immigration; if the president — any president — can simply legalize millions of illegal aliens, who are here contrary to the "laws" passed by Congress, then we will be living under a very different system of government. If President Hillary ends up winning this case (she's actually pledged to extend the amnesty to all illegals), a future Gibbon musing amidst the ruins of our Capitol, while barefooted imams sing the call to prayer, will devote a whole chapter to this subversion of the Constitution.