Ryan to advance 'extraordinary' effort to politicize the SCOTUS case on Obama's immigration actions

Daily Kos Staff

Monday March 14, 2016 · 10:41 AM PDT

2016/03/14 · 10:41

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 03: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI (L) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) walk together to a Senate GOP policy luncheon in the U.S. Capitol November 3, 2015 in Washington, DC. Ryan briefly addressed Republic

House Speaker Paul Ryan is expected to call a vote this week on a resolution seeking the power to file an amicus brief on behalf of the entire House of Representatives opposing President Obama’s immigration actions, which would shield up to five million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

It's an “extraordinary” move—by his own account along with that of immigration advocates and many legal observers—to officially inject the entire chamber into an already politicized legal challenge to the president's executive authority. As Slate's Mark Joseph Stern observed:

There is really no way to see United States v. Texas as anything but a bitterly partisan dispute between Republican governors and a Democratic executive. Of the 26 states bringing the suit, 26 are controlled by Republican executives. If this fact makes you question whether the Constitution doesn’t have some safeguard in place to prevent governors from suing a president over a purely political dispute, I have good news: It does. In order to sue the government, a plaintiff must have “standing”—that is, a specific, personalized injury inflicted by the allegedly unlawful government action. As John Roberts explained in 1993, standing rules are designed to keep the judiciary out of the “generalized grievances” that consume “the political branches.”

And as long-time Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse noted, the challenge shouldn’t have even made it to the nation’s high court.

This is a case that should have been tossed out of Federal District Court in the first instance. Instead, its stakes are now heightened enormously. If the justices approach their task as judges and not as politicians, the administration will easily prevail.

Of course, we know why it wasn't thrown out at the district level—because federal district judge Andrew Hanen’s court is a favorite destination for anti-immigrant nativists.

Now Ryan wants an election-year vote that puts all his members on record against President Obama's immigration actions, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of America's Voice, summed it up best, saying, "By bringing the question to a vote, Speaker Ryan is attempting to co-opt the People's House to send his party's anti-immigrant message."

Ryan to advance 'extraordinary' effort to politicize the SCOTUS case on Obama's immigration actions

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