Will the Supreme Court Side With Obama or the Constitution on Immigration?

Lower-skilled workers should be on the front lines of the immigration battle, demanding that our government enforce the law. 

Peter Kirsanow, a black commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, warned (PDF) President Barack Obama that giving illegal aliens amnesty would negatively affect black Americans. Illegal immigration in general “has a disparate impact on black men, because these men are disproportionately represented in the low-skilled labor force.”

But the president seems to consider such concerns not worth addressing. After he tried and failed to push through the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, he issued an edict from on high to defer deporting illegal aliens who meet certain conditions.

A coalition of 26 states says the president misused his executive powers when he deferred deportations. The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear arguments in the case. President Obama essentially changed the law, a power that belongs to the legislative branch. The coalition also asked the court to rule on whether the president violated the Take Care Clause, which charges him to “take care” that laws are faithfully executed. From the Hill:

Barnaby Zall, who filed an amicus brief in support of Texas for the American Unity Legal Defense Fund, said the court’s request has added a wild card to the case.

“I believe this is the first time since [President Harry] Truman took over the steel mills in the 50’s that the Take Care Clause has been a central part of a case, and certainly when the Court asks about something, they want to know about it,” Zall, an attorney with the Maryland-based Weinberg, Jacobs & Tolani LLP, said in an email to The Hill.

“So that changes what otherwise might be a simple prediction of the court’s behavior into something entirely different.”

President Obama once acknowledged his role: “I am president, I am not king. I can’t do these things just by myself.”

Things certainly have changed.