{"id":26214,"date":"2017-01-28T19:31:04","date_gmt":"2017-01-29T00:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=26214"},"modified":"2017-01-28T22:28:57","modified_gmt":"2017-01-29T03:28:57","slug":"a-trifecta-of-illegitimacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2017\/01\/a-trifecta-of-illegitimacy\/","title":{"rendered":"A Trifecta of Illegitimacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Let’s review a few basics about the Rule of Law in the United States of America.\u00a0 First of all, the Executive Branch (in the form of the President) is given the power to enforce federal law by our United States Constitution.\u00a0 In contrast,\u00a0the Legislative Branch (in the form of the Congress) is given the power to make the law.\u00a0 So, for example, if the Legislative Branch has passed a statute that grants all refugees seeking political asylum the absolute right to file such a claim when they reach our nation’s borders (which it has, in the Refugee Act of 1980), then the President cannot simply declare that right to be “suspended” and instruct\u00a0officers with the Customs and Border Protection\u00a0office to turn such refugees away when they arrive at U.S. airports or other ports of entry.<\/p>\n

As a side note, none of the Executive Orders or Presidential Directives<\/a> issued by President Obama\u00a0<\/a>relating to the enforcement of the immigration laws directly contravened explicit language contained in a statute passed by Congress.\u00a0 The legal debate over the unilateral actions taken by President Obama concerned the scope of the President’s discretion <\/a>to choose how to enforce the law and how to prioritize deportations.\u00a0 They did not concern whether the President had the authority to order government officials to ignore explicit commands contained in the law.\u00a0 The Order by President Trump to “suspend” the entry of refugees from specified countries without complying with the\u00a0provisions required under the Refugee Act of 1980 is in direct conflict with an Act of Congress.<\/p>\n

Second, the United States\u00a0has signed treaties that obligate us to treat persons who are “refugees” in certain ways.\u00a0 In particular, our nation has signed the U.N. Convention on Refugees, which forbids nations to return refugees to countries where it is more likely than not that their lives would be in danger on account of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group (a mandatory form of relief technically known as “withholding of removal”).\u00a0\u00a0In addition, the United States has signed the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which forbids nations to return any person arriving at their border\u00a0to\u00a0a country where they will be tortured.\u00a0 There are no exceptions to these obligations.\u00a0 And while international law is not self-executing, meaning that international law does not automatically become part of U.S. law,\u00a0in both instances Congress has passed legislation making these obligations a part of domestic U.S. Law.<\/p>\n

Third, the United States Constitution, in its 14th Amendment, commands that no person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws.\u00a0 This command applies to both the governments of the 50 states and to the federal government.\u00a0 There is no doubt that lawful permanent residents of the United States — persons legally entitled to reside in the United States but who have not become citizens — enjoy the same right of Equal Protection under the law as Citizens.\u00a0 Supreme Court precedent has recognized that there may be\u00a0times when the federal government may take account of the fact of alienage and adopt\u00a0a uniform\u00a0rule for all aliens that is different from the rule adopted for all citizens.\u00a0 But it is a different matter for the federal government to adopt the\u00a0discriminatory treatment of one group of\u00a0permanent resident aliens\u00a0versus another group of permanent resident aliens on the basis of race, nationality or religion.\u00a0 For the federal government to treat some legal permanent residents differently than other legal permanent residents solely on the basis of their religion would be a clear denial of equal protection under the law.<\/p>\n

President Trump issued an Executive Order <\/a>yesterday which purports to\u00a0bar Syrian refugees from Syria from entering the United States indefinitely and which also suspends\u00a0all refugee resettlement in the U.S. for 120 days as the administration reviews its vetting process. It also imposes a 90-day ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan and Somalia.\u00a0 This order does not permit the affected refugees to request asylum when they arrive at the U.S. port of entry and there are news reports of people being forced to return to the\u00a0country from whence they came.\u00a0 Spokespersons for the Trump Administration have also stated that the 90 day ban on entry applies to permanent resident aliens<\/a> from the identified countries.<\/p>\n

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit <\/a>challenging this Executive Order.\u00a0 The swift condemnation of the Order is unsurprising, and a judicial injunction partially halting the implementation of the Executive Order was issued mere moments ago<\/a>.\u00a0 After all, President Trump’s Executive Order is contrary to\u00a0congressional statutes, international law and the United States Constitution.\u00a0 As such, it achieves a rare\u00a0trifecta of illegitimacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s review a few basics about the Rule of Law in the United States of America.\u00a0 First of all, the Executive Branch (in the form of the President) is given the power to enforce federal law by our United States Constitution.\u00a0 In contrast,\u00a0the Legislative Branch (in the form of the Congress) is given the power 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