From The Hilarious Files: Texans’ SB-4 Sparring, In Fifth Cir. — The Feds Win This One. [And All The Other Ones, Too.]

Just as in 2012 in Arizona, this measure is DOA — and we’ve said so from the start.

It is unconstitutional… on its face. The Supremes said so, in essentially identical circumstances in 2012. But today, AG Paxton sought to tell the Fifth Circuit that an unrelated case decided this term by the Supremes, on facial challenges meant the Fifth got it wrong, and Texas state troopers, and city cops, alone — of all the 50 states — may demand that every brown person (and. . . only the brown people!) “show their papers” — even if they are just out to buy groceries (for example). Here’s the able US Attorneys’ office response:

…Texas’s June 25 Rule 28(j) letter references the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Rahimi, No. 22-915 (Jun. 21, 2024). That decision does not advance Texas’s cause.

In Rahimi, the Supreme Court applied settled law to evaluate a facial challenge to the constitutionality of a statute. See Slip Op. 8 (quoting United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 745 (1987)). As this Court recognized at the stay stage, SB 4 is facially invalid because there is “no set of circumstances” under which SB4 could be enforced consistent with federal law. See United States v. Texas, 97 F.4th 268, 294 (5th Cir. 2024) (quoting Salerno, 481 U.S. at 745). The district court therefore did not err in enjoining enforcement of SB 4. See ROA.542–73….

Now you know. Texas has elected a governor (and an attorney general) that plainly either (i) do not understand the US Constitution [and federalism, after US v. Arizona, 567 U.S. 387 (2012)], or (more likely) (ii) simply have decided to ignore it all, and pretend that they too [like Tangerine] are monarchs over a kingdom they call… Texas.

And so… it may be time to hand all that land back to Mexico — and say… Go ahead: “feel free to take whatever isn’t nailed down“….

These lawless jamokes no longer want to live under our federal wings (of protection), we graciously provide? Fine.

Fair enough, I’d say. Maybe it is time to just let the rest of the world… have at ’em…. /SNARK

नमस्ते