The 18 states suing the federal government to stop President Barack Obama’s executive order on immigration have landed the case before a “dream judge,”
according to Talking Points Memo.
Judge Andrew Hanen of Texas, who was appointed by former President George H.W. Bush, will hear the lawsuit that is being led by Texas Attorney General and Gov.-elect Greg Abbott.
The states are seeking an
immediate injunction to prevent nearly 5 million illegal immigrants living in the United States from getting amnesty against deportation as well as three-year work permits, starting in the spring of 2015.
More than 100 legal experts, including conservatives, claim that the lawsuit is without foundation on the basis of “standing,” which requires evidence of injury to the plaintiff, as well as the fact that legal precedent grants the executive branch widespread discretion on immigration laws, Talking Points Memo (TPM) said.
But, in the past, Hanen has attacked the Obama administration for showing mercy in immigration cases, and even accused the Department of Homeland Security in 2013 of assisting criminal conspiracy by failing to prosecute or deport the smuggler of an illegal 10-year-old immigrant.
“This DHS policy is a dangerous course of action," Hanen wrote in that case. “The DHS, instead of enforcing our border security laws, actually assisted the criminal conspiracy in achieving its illegal goals. The DHS has simply chosen not to enforce the…border security laws."
Jonathan Weinberg, a law professor at Wayne State University, told Talking Points Memo that Abbott's move to have Hanen hear the case was "a classic exercise of what lawyers call judge-shopping."
Weinberg said the states are likely to win the case at the district court level, but noted that their standing claims are "shaky" and that their merit claims are "simply wrong," according to the report.
"Judge Hanen has for all practical purposes already decided the standing question, and he makes it clear where his sympathies lie on the merits question,” Weinberg said. “Given all that, it's real likely that Texas will prevail."
Stephen Legomsky, a professor at Washington University Law, told TPM: “The notable thing about (Hanen’s) opinion was that his language was very inflammatory and seems to be more politicized than you would normally get in a judicial opinion.”
The news website noted that if Hanen grants an injunction, the Obama administration would then either ask the conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has 10 Republican-appointed judges and five Democrat-appointed ones, or the Supreme Court, to lift the injunction while the case is decided on its merits.
Weinberg also told TPM that if Hanen’s possible injunction is not lifted by the Fifth Circuit or Supreme Court, the administration would then have to halt its amnesty actions while appealing the case.
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