PRESIDENT Donald Trump suffered more than a legal defeat of his immigration ban Thursday night. He ran smack into the limits of executive power.
Three federal judges unanimously refused to restore the White House’s controversial travel ban, laying down the most significant marker yet that Trump’s vision of an administration rooted in the muscular use of executive power — similar to that he enjoyed as a business leader — will not go unchallenged.
In a stinging rebuke, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the administration’s argument that the judiciary lacked the authority to block the travel ban as “contrary to the fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy.”
The tone and content of the decision immediately called into question Trump’s gamble in enacting such a fundamental reshaping of the nation’s immigration laws through presidential order rather than a law debated and passed by Congress.
The embarrassment of Thursday’s ruling raises new doubts about the effectiveness of the President’s unorthodox method of doing business. In this case, the tendency to draw up plans without much outside input has not served the White House well. The relative inexperience of Trump’s core advisers may also have been a factor.
According to CNN, it is now certain that the saga of the immigration ban, which has consumed the presidency for two of its three weeks and is distracting from other priorities, will run on indefinitely with possible damaging consequences for the young administration.
But the President, who came to office predicting an avalanche of wins and warning that only he could fix the multiple crises he diagnosed as ailing the national soul, is a long way from admitting a final defeat. Drawing on the pugilistic instincts that sustained his business career, he dug in for a counter attack.
A few minutes later, the President began the task of using the decision to galvanize his devoted armies of supporters who sent him to Washington to carry out reforms exactly on the lines of his original executive order.
But the President, who came to office predicting an avalanche of wins and warning that only he could fix the multiple crises he diagnosed as ailing the national soul, is a long way from admitting a final defeat. Drawing on the pugilistic instincts that sustained his business career, he dug in for a counter attack.
A few minutes later, the President began the task of using the decision to galvanize his devoted armies of supporters who sent him to Washington to carry out reforms exactly on the lines of his original executive order.
“It’s a political decision, we’re going to see them in court, and I look forward to doing that,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We have a situation where the security of our country is at stake and it’s a very very serious situation.”
The ruling came with Trump waging feuds on multiple fronts with various lawmakers on Capitol Hill and with his own approval ratings at lower levels than ever seen for a newly inaugurated president.
Democratic opponents hailed the decision as an affirmation of the principles on which the nation is based and a precursor of likely pitched legal battles to come on the extent of Trump’s power.
“I am pleased that our check and balance system is working in this country,” Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “It shows that the courts are going to be there when President Trump uses his power and exceeds his constitutional authority. I think that is an important message that our constitutional system will work.”
But the President’s allies quickly moved to contain the damage and to frame the terms of the political and legal fight ahead.
Arkansas GOP Sen. Tom Cotton said the order was plainly legal and argued the courts shouldn’t second guess the national security decisions of the president.
and then