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Will Obama’s defeat on his immigration order be sustained
PowerlineBlog ^ | February 18, 201 | by Paul Mirengoff

Posted on 02/19/2015 1:36:38 PM PST by 11th_VA

When I first heard that Judge Andrew Hanen had blocked President Obama’s executive order granting lawful status to as many as five million illegal immigrants, I was inclined to downplay the ruling’s significance. Judge Hanen is an able jurist, but a conservative one, and only a district court judge. The opinions that truly matter will be rendered by less conservative judges further up the ladder.

That’s still, perhaps, the best way of looking at it. But the quality of the arguments isn’t always irrelevant to the outcome of cases of enormous political moment. And the arguments Judge Hanen makes are quite strong.

As Michael McConnell points out, Hanen did not rest his decision on the Obama administration’s refusal, as an alleged act of prosecutorial discretion, to enforce the ban on staying in the U.S. illegally as applied to millions of illegal immigrants. Rather, his ruling is confined to the most egregious feature of the executive order — the grant to illegal immigrants of work authorization and benefits. Granting these sorts of affirmative favors has never been a matter of prosecutorial discretion, nor can it sensibly be viewed as such.

Administration lawyers stressed that Presidents Reagan and Bush 41 granted temporary status to certain classes of aliens without statutory authority. Judge Henen responded that these actions were never reviewed in court, and that past executive actions cannot serve as precedent for future expansions of executive power.

In addition, Judge Hanen was easily able to distinguish past executive actions in favor of illegal immigrants from Obama’s. The prior instances involved small categories of aliens to whom Congress had granted special status and who merely needed a brief temporary bridge so they could take advantage of the status Congress provided. Here, by contrast, millions of aliens are granted a change of status they are not eligible for under any provision enacted by Congress.

McConnell concludes that, given the narrowness of the decision and the quality of its reasoning, “it will not be easy for the administration’s lawyers to persuade those courts that Judge Hanen got the law wrong.”

I’m less confident of this, but more confident than I was before I read the opinion and Judge McConnell’s column.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; News/Current Events
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Sounds like Obama Admin is in trouble ...
1 posted on 02/19/2015 1:36:38 PM PST by 11th_VA
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To: 11th_VA

Only if one has confidence in the integrity of the judiciary.

I certainly do not.


2 posted on 02/19/2015 1:39:19 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: 11th_VA

Not if the GOPe & Jeb have anything to say on the issue!


3 posted on 02/19/2015 1:39:43 PM PST by TexasCajun
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To: 11th_VA

The 5th tends to skew conservative.

The sustain rate of appeals is over 80% in appellate courts.


4 posted on 02/19/2015 1:41:46 PM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: 11th_VA

Obama has got his thugs working 3 shifts, printing phony documents. He knows the((Establishment) Republicans want amnesty. He has no fear, because there is nobody to fear. Yesterday, Obama ordered the Border Patrol not to arrest DUI illegal immigrants. I haven’t heard a peep out of the R’s all day.


5 posted on 02/19/2015 1:41:59 PM PST by stephenjohnbanker (My Batting Average( 1,000) (GOPe is that easy to read))
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To: 11th_VA
It'll be tough to stuff voter registration cards, work authorization papers and earned income tax credits under the aegis of "prosecutorial discretion".

But I'm sure some leftwing activist judge will try.

6 posted on 02/19/2015 1:43:28 PM PST by skeeter
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To: 11th_VA

This legal scholar proves that you bad old Freepers have no reason to complain about the Royal Idiot's amnesty program.

7 posted on 02/19/2015 1:45:15 PM PST by Zakeet (Obama: fail ... deny ... blame ... golf ... distract ... lie ... repeat)
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To: BenLurkin
Only if one has confidence in the integrity of the judiciary.

I certainly do not.

I don't either. I wonder if the judge has gotten a letter from the IRS yet?

8 posted on 02/19/2015 1:46:30 PM PST by Mark17 (Calvary's love has never faltered, all it's wonder still remains. Souls still take eternal passage)
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To: 11th_VA
IMHO he will just ignore it as coming form an irrelevant judiciary - no different than him ignoring Article 1. He has ignored judicial “opinions” in the past when he disagreed and no I am not going to waste time looking them up. The first one that comes to mind was around the time of the oil rig blowout and “fake” facts from the King.
9 posted on 02/19/2015 1:48:49 PM PST by Cheerio (Barry Hussein Soetoro-0bama=The Complete Destruction of American Capitalism)
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To: longtermmemmory

“The sustain rate is over 80% in Appellate Courts.”
At least its not going to the 9th Circuit.


10 posted on 02/19/2015 1:49:01 PM PST by Sasparilla (If you want peace, prepare for war.)
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To: 11th_VA

I thought of a simple analogy for this:
Prosocutorial discression is catching a guy driving without a license, but sending him driving on his way without a ticket.

What Obama did was give the guy a license before sending him on his way.

Completely different thing.


11 posted on 02/19/2015 1:49:40 PM PST by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: 11th_VA
I think the key in this case is that the judge issued a stay while he makes up his mind how to rule.
I view that as a kind of pocket veto. He may want to review this case for the next two years and then it will be moot.
I guess they can overturn a stay order, but I believe Obama would have to show irreparable harm if the stay is not reversed.
12 posted on 02/19/2015 1:50:23 PM PST by oldbrowser (We have a rogue government in Washington)
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To: 11th_VA
First, this admin will comply, showing all how they obey court decisions.

Then they fish for some obscure judge on their payroll to overturn, and ask you to then comply to the more current decision, after all, are you not lawful?

13 posted on 02/19/2015 1:52:12 PM PST by going hot (Happiness is a momma deuce)
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To: 11th_VA

Obama does everything in Secret


14 posted on 02/19/2015 1:52:43 PM PST by molson209 (Blank)
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To: oldbrowser
Bingo ! This Judge will run out the clock on Obama - and if the C-Span caller article I just posted is true (and I believe it is), the Rats could lose everything in 2016.

Lord please let the stars align !

15 posted on 02/19/2015 1:54:17 PM PST by 11th_VA
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To: 11th_VA

Sounds like Obama Admin is in trouble ...


Not for a minute...Islam is on the march and obama’s administration is loaded with muslim islamic brotherhood appointees.


16 posted on 02/19/2015 2:06:28 PM PST by DefeatCorruption
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To: BenLurkin

If it is handled as a legal issue, it appears so. If it is handled as a political issue, or if blackmail/extortion is involved, probably not.


17 posted on 02/19/2015 2:13:36 PM PST by expat2
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To: expat2

.
>> “If it is handled as a political issue, or if blackmail/extortion is involved...” <<

.
You mean like everything in the good ol’ USA is handled?

.


18 posted on 02/19/2015 2:25:24 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: 11th_VA
Will Obama’s defeat on his immigration order be sustained

I have a strong feeling that emperor Hussein is planning on proceeding, even if the Courts order him to desist.

19 posted on 02/19/2015 2:47:50 PM PST by The Sons of Liberty (Some say I hate 0bama; "HATE" is a strong word, but in this case NOT STRONG ENOUGH!!)
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To: The Sons of Liberty
Yes, Herman Cain is already mentioning that Obama is going to ignore this ruling and continue as if nothing happened. And why wouldn't he - no one in D.C. is going to stop him.
20 posted on 02/19/2015 5:51:45 PM PST by Major Matt Mason ("Journalism is dead. All news is suspect." - Noamie)
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