Another Victory for the Constitution: President Obama’s Executive Overreach Loses Again in Federal Court

By 

Jay Sekulow

|
April 8, 2015

4 min read

Constitution

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A federal court in Texas has once again vindicated the U.S. Constitution, the rule of law, and the separation of powers against President Obama’s Executive overreach on immigration.

The court agreed with our argument in our amicus brief on behalf of over 158,000 Americans that President Obama’s lawless action should not be allowed to continue while the case goes forward.

The ACLJ continues to fight in federal court on behalf of Members of Congress and thousands upon thousands of concerned Americans defending the Constitution.

The Federal District Court for the Southern District of Texas denied the Obama Administration’s motion to stay its February ruling halting the implementation of President Obama’s Executive overreach.  The court cited the Obama Administration’s lawyers’ misconduct and called the Administration’s statements “misleading” and not “fully candid.”

Read the court’s order here.

Quoting President Obama’s previous comments at town hall meetings and press conferences discussing his Executive actions, the federal court’s order deconstructs the unconstitutional overreach:

The President’s message, specifically to those law enforcement officials employed within the Executive Branch, and more generally to the nation, is clear. First, immigration laws (i.e. the INA), which those officials are charged with enforcing, are not to be enforced when those laws conflict with the 2014 DHS Directive. Second, the criteria set out in that Directive are mandatory. Third, if DHS officials (or other Executive Branch officials) fail to follow the specified criteria, there will be consequences for this failure―just as there would be consequences if they were in the military and disobeyed an order from the Commander in Chief. In summary, the Chief Executive has ordered that the laws requiring removal of illegal immigrants that conflict with the 2014 DHS Directive are not to be enforced, and that anyone who attempts to do so will be punished.

This is not merely ineffective enforcement. This is total non-enforcement, applicable to millions of people. If one limits the directive just to putative DAPA recipients, this is an order by the President to not enforce the law as to approximately 4.5 million people—the rough equivalent of the population of the State of Louisiana, and a population larger than the populations of 25 of the 50 states. In fact, thirteen of the 26 Plaintiff States have populations that are less than the number of illegal immigrants estimated to receive the benefits accompanying “legal presence” under the 2014 DHS Directive. . . .

The 2014 DHS Directive is both contrary to existing immigration legislation and an unprecedented executive action by even the agency’s own account.

The Obama Administration has already attempted to usurp Congress’s constitutional powers through Executive overreach. Now, in the district court and at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Obama Administration continues its attack on the separation of powers and the U.S. Constitution.

Our amicus briefs at the district court on behalf of members of Congress and the Committee to Defend the Separation of Powers are having an impact. We argued, “Upholding these principles [and keeping the injunction against President Obama’s illegal Executive action in place] preserves the Constitution and does no harm to [the federal government]; as this Court held, [the Obama Administration is] not enjoined from setting immigration enforcement priorities or determining how to use their limited resources in carrying out these enforcement priorities.”

The federal court agreed, “Further, it is obvious that there is no pressing, emergent need for this program. If there had been such a need, the DHS could have implemented the program at any time in the last five or ten years, or even in the many decades preceding the 2014 DHS Directive. The Government has not shown any credible reason for why this Directive necessitates immediate implementation.”

The Obama Administration is now taking their legal arguments to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. We have already filed one amicus brief there – on behalf of key Members of Congress and over 180,000 Americans – against the motion for an emergency stay and are preparing another brief on behalf of Members of Congress standing up for the Constitution against President Obama’s lawlessness.

Stand with us and sign our next critical legal brief to defend the Constitution.  We will continue fighting in court, filing briefs at every stage in this case—up to and including the Supreme Court of the United States.