Texas, the Border and the Supreme Court

The latest progressive freakout about the Supreme Court lasted mere hours. President Biden’s border crisis is so bad that Texas is begging to enforce its own immigration law, S.B.4, which is tied up in court. That law briefly took effect Tuesday after the Justices declined to intervene on their emergency docket, until their strong hint to move fast was heeded by lower-court judges.

This controversy is about legal process, not the merits, and anyone claiming otherwise is playing politics. S.B.4, which would let Texas arrest border crossers and order them to exit the country, is in tension with the Supreme Court’s precedent in Arizona v. U.S. (2012). Federal Judge David Ezra blocked the Texas effort, saying it “conflicts with key provisions of federal immigration law, to the detriment of the United States’ foreign relations and treaty obligations.”