Justices did nothing with immigration decision
WASHINGTON — For all the Republican claims of victory over yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling on President Obama’s immigration executive order, the truth of the matter is the justices did absolutely nothing. But I guess for House and Senate leadership, doing nothing must feel comfortably familiar.
“This is a win for the Constitution, it’s a win for Congress, and it’s a win for our fight to restore the separation of powers,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said of the court’s inability to decide the constitutionality of Obama’s actions, a move that automatically affirms the lower court’s block on the measure and sends it to a lower court to proceed.
“Congress, not the president, writes our laws,” Ryan continued in an impressive contortion of logic, “and (yesterday) the Supreme Court validated that very core, essential fundamental principle.”
But the court did not do that. It didn’t do anything, besides issue a one-line ruling that has no precedential effect: “The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court.”
The ruling may as well have read: “We couldn’t do our jobs, because Senate lawmakers haven’t.”
The timing shows the justices likely tried their hardest. If they had simply voted on the case back in April, come up tied and left it at that, yesterday’s ruling would have come months ago. Instead, they clearly deliberated since April’s arguments in the case to try to find some way to rule.
But there is one thing the court can’t do: give itself another member to ensure it can function and give clarity to the rule of law. No, that’s the job of the president and the Senate. The president did his part, nominating a well-respected candidate to fill the court’s vacancy. Unfortunately, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell continues to block him.
But that didn’t stop him from bragging.
“This ruling further underscores the importance of a president who acknowledges and respects the separation of powers as well as a Supreme Court that defends these constitutional principles,” McConnell said in a statement issued 99 days since Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination.
It’s ironic that the president, who was the clear loser in yesterday’s non-decision by any legal and political measure, is the one who recognized the court’s action most clearly for what it was.
“As disappointing as it was to be challenged,” Obama said after the non-decision, “the country was looking to the Supreme Court to resolve the important legal questions raised in this case. (Yesterday), the Supreme Court was unable to reach a decision. This is part of the consequence of the Republican failure so far to give a fair hearing to Mr. Merrick Garland.”