Fourth Circuit outrageously continues block of Trump immigration executive order

Despite the Muslim terrorist attack last week in Manchester, England, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 10 to 3 on Thursday (May 25) to uphold a lower court’s restraining order against President Trump’s executive order limiting travel from terrorism-plagued countries. One would think such a decision to be tone-deaf at best, but like Democrats everywhere, the hyper-partisan Democrat-packed court has gone way beyond its authority. The Immigration and Nationality Act gives the president clear authority to block any group from entering the country if he considers such a policy to be in the national interest. The courts are not supposed to second-guess the president’s judgment. After all, the president is Commander-in-Chief and has access to secret intelligence. He is obviously in a better position to decide such things than unelected men and women in black robes – and it is his job, not that of the courts. Traditionally the courts have granted the president great deference in such national-security-related matters.

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The law is so crystal clear it defies logic that any court, let alone the Fourth Circuit, would rule this way. But these are bizarre times, the consequence of eight years of an extreme-left partisan president who was routinely willing to bend or break rules in pursuit of his destructive agenda. Judges appointed by President Obama –he made over 300 court appointments— seem to be every bit as radical as the man who nominated them, and just as willing to break the rules. The relevant section of the INA has been ruled on before by the Supreme Court. In making this decision, the Richmond, Virginia-based Fourth Circuit is totally ignoring precedent and in fact, has made up law. One of the dissenting judges wrote:

This approach (1) plainly violates the Supreme Court’s directive in Mandel [an earlier immigration case where the plaintiff Mandel was barred from entry]; (2) adopts a new rule of law that uses campaign statements to recast the plain, unambiguous, and religiously neutral text of an executive order; and (3) radically extends the Supreme Court’s Establishment Clause holdings.

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Mandel was crystal clear and illustrates just how far off base the Fourth Circuit was. Mandel held:

…the power to exclude aliens is inherent in sovereignty, necessary for maintaining normal international relations and defending the country against foreign encroachments and dangers — a power to be exercised exclusively by the political branches of government.

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Another dissenting Fourth Circuit judge wrote:

Regrettably, at the end of the day, the real losers in this case are the millions of individual Americans whose security is threatened on a daily basis by those who seek to do us harm.

The Trump administration is appealing this case to the Supreme Court. Barring some unforeseen circumstance, the Fourth Circuit’s decision should be shot down. But I think the judges knew this all along. The increasingly partisan court has now revealed itself to be just one more component of the Democrats’ “Resist” strategy to oppose Trump at every opportunity and make the nation ungovernable. But the Democrats are once again overplaying their hand. They lost nationwide in 2016 because these kinds of tactics have become their mainstay. All they do is obstruct, attack, and smear. When they lose elections, they impose their policies by judicial fiat. We the People are sick of it.

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And a good example is the recent special election in which Greg Gianforte (R) was elected to replace Ryan Zinke (R), now secretary of the interior. Gianforte won by 6 points, despite being caught the night before the election beating up a Guardian reporter (who probably deserved it). A Gianforte supporter captured the sentiment: “We’ve watched how the press is one-sided. Excuse me, that’s how I feel. (They’re) making him their whipping boy so to speak through this campaign. There comes a point where, [we say] stop it.” Now the Democrats want their base to think that their loss to Gianforte was actually a victory. This spin-doctoring comes as the Democratic National Committee posted the lowest April fundraising totals since 2009: $4.7 million. By contrast, the Republican National Committee raised $9.6 million in the same month. DNC cash on hand in April was $8.8 million and it spent more than it raised. The RNC had $41.4 million on hand. We the People have had enough. We are not going to allow the Democrats’ outrageous cheating and obstruction to carry the day any more. The Democratic Party has degenerated into a giant party of social justice warrior protesters: whiny, smug, self-righteous, rude, inconsiderate and ignorant – not exactly a winning combination. So keep it up, Democrats. If present trends continue, the 2018 elections will be a bloodbath. If all you can do is break things, then you will be treated like the children you are.

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