Another Rebuke Of Texas Gov. Abbott: Fifth Circuit Enjoins Texas SB4... Until Appeals Are Over, At Least.

Even in the ultra-conservative Fifth Circuit, sanity is making a comeback.

Do read it all, from the overnight opinion. Sit down, MAGA Gov. Abbott -- and tell your followers to do the same.

. . .For nearly 150 years, the Supreme Court has held that the power to control immigration—the entry, admission, and removal of noncitizens -- is exclusively a federal power. Despite this fundamental axiom, S. B. 4 creates separate, distinct state criminal offenses and related procedures regarding unauthorized entry of noncitizens into Texas from outside the country and their removal.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Arizona v. United States provides considerable guidance as to whether Texas is likely to succeed on the merits of the preemption issue. There, the relevant state-law provision -- Section 3 of S. B. 1070, an Arizona bill -- punished a noncitizen’s “willful failure to complete or carry an alien registration document.” The state provision adopted the same substantive standards as the federal law that required noncitizens to carry proof of registration. After analyzing the federal regulations in the “field of alien registration,” the Court observed “[t]he framework enacted by Congress leads to the conclusion . . . that the Federal Government has occupied the field of alien registration.” The Court explained this national registration scheme “was designed as a ‘harmonious whole. . . .’”

Texas correctly observes the statutes at issue in Arizona did not regulate unlawful entry and removal of noncitizens. But the Court’s holding in Arizona provides guiding principles. The Court held: “Where Congress occupies an entire field, as it has in the field of alien registration, even complementary state regulation is impermissible. Field preemption reflects a congressional decision to foreclose any state regulation in the area, even if it is parallel to federal standards. . . .”

So it goes. Next one on pricing of Merck's next blockbuster called Winrevair -- at $250,000 per year. With about 40,000 sufferers in the US alone. Damn.

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