If the average American were asked to point to the section of the U.S. Constitution granting the Supreme Court authority to execute immigration laws, chances are he would have a tough time finding it. Why? Because such a power doesn’t exist.
That pertinent fact didn’t seem to matter to seven justices on America’s highest court, however.
This past weekend, these justices took it upon themselves to usurp President Trump’s Article II powers over immigration enforcement by temporarily halting the planned deportations of dangerous Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act. Released in the early hours of Saturday morning, the court’s one-page order arbitrarily directed the administration “not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court.”
The order provided no rationale for the decision, prompting Associate Justice Samuel Alito to pen a blistering dissent, in which Associate Justice Clarence Thomas joined. In addition to chastising the majority for “hastily and prematurely” granting emergency relief in a case still working its way through the lower courts, Alito laid out a bulleted list of everything wrong with the high court’s “unprecedented and legally questionable” actions. He notably wrote, “It is not clear that the Court had jurisdiction” over the matter, and, “Both the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law” (emphasis added).
[READ: The Courts Are The Scofflaws Behind Our Current Constitutional Crisis]
While the merits of this case and other leftist-backed challenges to Trump’s immigration policies have yet to be considered by SCOTUS, the absurdity of the majority’s midnight order in the broader context of illegal immigration into the United States is notable.
For four years under Joe Biden, millions of foreign nationals were allowed to pour into America’s interior with little to no oversight or pushback. While hordes of illegals came across the U.S.-Mexico border, the Biden administration facilitated the placement of foreign nationals throughout the country in places like Springfield, Ohio, upending countless American lives in the process.
Some American families suffered great losses as a result of Biden’s open border policies. Illegal aliens who never should have been allowed to set foot in the U.S. to begin with took the lives of young girls like Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray.
And yet, when Trump attempts to reverse this anarchy by lawfully utilizing his Article II powers and existing statutes to remove foreign nationals infringing upon America’s sovereignty, the courts interfere and tell him he can’t. That is patently absurd and illogical.
For one, the Constitution gives the authority to execute the nation’s laws to the president — not to the Supreme Court or any other lower court judge.
Secondly, the notion that the judiciary is “supreme” to the other branches directly contradicts the views of the Founding Fathers. As The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson recently explained, the founders “didn’t think the judiciary was the sole arbiter of what is and is not constitutional.” “While the courts, headed by the Supreme Court, indeed have an independent power to interpret and apply the Constitution,” Davidson wrote, “that doesn’t mean they are supreme over the other two branches, or the states for that matter.”
Alexander Hamilton even suggested in The Federalist No. 78 that the judiciary is to be considered the weakest of the three branches, as it “has no influence over either the sword or the purse, no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society, and can take no active resolution whatever.”
The judiciary “may truly be said to have neither force nor will, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments,” Hamilton wrote.
The system of government Hamilton described is not the one Americans find themselves living under today.
What the United States has witnessed throughout the past century — and was further shown by SCOTUS early Saturday morning — is an out-of-control judiciary that has superseded the authority provided to it by the Constitution. Not content with simply interpreting laws, the courts have taken it upon themselves to create law out of thin air (see Roe v. Wade) and dictate to the executive what statutes and constitutional provisions it is and isn’t allowed to enforce.
That is judicial supremacism — something the founders flatly rejected.
Whether or not SCOTUS does the right thing in the end and “allows” Trump to deport Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act is totally up in the air. The fact remains that the judiciary — including the Supreme Court — has far exceeded the confines of the limits placed upon it by the Constitution.
Unless and until Trump and/or Congress challenge such tyranny, Americans will continue to be ruled by unelected politicians in black robes.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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