Florida

Bondi Joins Lawsuit Against Obama Executive Order on Immigration

Republican Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday that she will join a multi-state coalition led by Texas that is suing the federal government over President Barack Obama’s executive action that could spare up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

The coalition is made up exclusively of Republican-led states. In a written statement, Bondi said the lawsuit wasn’t over immigration, but rather “is about President Obama-yet again-overstepping the power granted to him by our United States Constitution.”

At its core, the lawsuit says Obama violated the “Take Care Clause” of the Constitution that limits presidential power and that the order will “exacerbate the humanitarian crisis along the southern border, which will affect increased state investment in law enforcement, health care, and education.”

The White House has pushed back repeatedly saying the Supreme Court and Congress “have made clear that federal officials can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws.” In the Justice Department memo defending the new executive order, it cited a Supreme Court case (Heckler v. Chaney) that recognized room for discretion on some laws.

Democrats have also pointed out that Republican presidents like Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush have also issued similar, though somewhat smaller, executive orders about immigration.

The Dallas Morning News interviewed University of Texas constitutional law professor Sanford Levinson who said the lawsuit is a “very, very good political document” but said the states are going to have a hard time winning their case.

Bondi has been on the losing side of a high-profile lawsuit against the federal government before. Florida helped lead the lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services over the Affordable Care Act, which was rejected almost in its entirety by a split Supreme Court decision.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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