I agree with you - the legal precedent is extremely clear and courts, unlike the short news cycle in the media, are bound by precedent.
The 9th Circuit has gone far afield on many issues regarding social issues, but despite the “social justice” aspect of this lawsuit the law is quite clear and established. In fact, I would be willing to bet there are decisions in every circuit from appeals by illegal aliens that uphold the law. There is also the real important issue of standing - another clear area legally that is a very difficult hurdle for any state to overcome given the statutory authority of Fedgov for borders.
There is another aspect to this case that is far more dangerous - the separation of powers. This deserves the most attention, but it has received very little. If the court upheld this ruling one could make an argument that every executive action could be stalled, stopped, or impeded by the courts. It would be a defacto usurpation of executive authority by a judiciary that is not elected and it could create an endless judicial review of every executive action if the opposition party abused the right to sue. The 9th Circuit has to be aware of this and it is for this reason the case is DOA at SCOTUS.
“There is another aspect to this case that is far more dangerous - the separation of powers. This deserves the most attention, but it has received very little. If the court upheld this ruling one could make an argument that every executive action could be stalled, stopped, or impeded by the courts. It would be a defacto usurpation of executive authority by a judiciary that is not elected and it could create an endless judicial review of every executive action if the opposition party abused the right to sue.”
And that is exactly the Democrat nuclear option regarding Trump. They have endless money, lawyers and they pretty much own the judicial branch (enough of it to make this strategy tenable anyway). The Left will sue over every single Trump decision - and even if in the end SCOTUS makes it right, they’ve slow-walked Trump policy through the courts, delaying the implementation of Trump’s program. Which is exactly what they want to do, slow everything down to a snail’s crawl and run out the clock on the Trump Administration - leaving it as an unsuccessful, do nothing administration. This is their strategy, the longer it lasts as a viable strategy, the more damage they do.
The questions the judges were asking yesterday were horrifying. Completely out in left field, literally. Totally irrelevant.
This case should not take more than fifteen minutes of deliberation.