Apparently, the Constitution now comes with a permission slip.
According to Minnesota's political class—and the federal judge they are hoping will indulge them—federal immigration law is binding except when local officials find it inconvenient, uncomfortable, or politically risky. In those moments, the thinking goes, the state can simply ask a court to restrain Immigration and Customs Enforcement and call it "constitutional balance."
Thankfully, the Trump administration is having none of it.
In a sharply worded filing this week, the Department of Justice warned that any judicial order limiting ICE operations inside Minnesota would amount to an "unprecedented overreach." That phrasing is not hyperbole. It is the legal equivalent of asking whether we have collectively forgotten how the country works.
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