SHOW THEM DOOR
And it’s all perfectly constitutional, as we all long suspected, whatever fantasies to the contrary progressives have.
Those fantasies are how the issue wound up in court to begin with, thanks to a Seattle-based King County executive who, in 2019, prohibited operators working the county airport from servicing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) flights.
The Trump administration immediately took them to court over the obstruction…
…At issue is an April 2019 executive order issued by King County Executive Dow Constantine, which directed county officials to prohibit fixed base operators on a county airfield near Seattle from servicing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement charter flights used to deport illegal foreign nationals.
Constantine’s order prohibited King County International Airport from supporting “the transportation and deportation of immigration detainees in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, either traveling within or arriving or departing the United States or its territories.”
The airport is located next to a major ICE-Seattle base of operations.
The Trump administration at the time sued, arguing Constantine’s order violated the Supremacy Clause’s intergovernmental immunity doctrine and a World War II-era Instrument of Transfer agreement allowing the federal government to use the airport in King County.
…and actually prevailed in district court (whoda thunk, right?), but King County appealed to the 9th Circuit in an effort to overturn that ruling.
CALL A WAAHMBULANCE CUZ IT AIN’T FAIR
Don’t the justices understand, argued County Executive Constantine, King is a ‘sanctuary county.’
In other words, we are gentle, special flowers. Peace, love, and cannabis!
…With King County, as a so-called “sanctuary county,” Constantine argues its region “has acted decisively to become more inclusive, removing barriers to affordable housing, transit, health, economic opportunity and promoting strong childhood development for everyone.” The county has also set its “region apart as a leader in protecting the rights of all people in our communities, and continues to not tolerate discrimination, harassment, expressions of hate, or any behavior intended to promote fear, intimidation, or isolation,” he says.
Unimpressed, the justices thanked him for sharing and basically said, ‘That’s not how this works.’
THAT’S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS
via GIPHY
They were brutally direct, explaining to Mr Constantine how it DID work and was going to in the future.
Besides ‘affirming’ the district court’s judgment his order violated the Supremacy Clause, the circuit justices had some constitutional nitpicking at Mr Constantine’s order of their own to do, as the order’s institution was based purely on ‘ideological’ grounds. In other words, Mr. Constantine’s #feelz made him do it, not anything ICE had physically done at the airport.
This is also, in legal terms, a non-excuse (okay – I made that ‘legal’ part up).
…The panel also held that the federal government had Article III standing to sue and “had two related concrete and individualized injuries.” The first is “the inability to conduct the charter flights – which has increased ICE’s operational costs – constituted a de facto injury that affected the United States in a particularized, individual way” and “an imminent risk of future injury from the Executive Order.”
The second is the federal government’s injuries “were fairly traceable” and “are likely, as opposed to merely speculative,” as a result of the order. Were there no order, “an FBO would resume servicing ICE charter flights,” the court notes.
Constantine’s order violated the intergovernmental immunity doctrine because it “improperly regulated the way in which the federal government transported noncitizen detainees by preventing ICE from using private FBO contractors at Boeing Field, and on its face discriminated against the United States by singling out the federal government and its contractors for unfavorable treatment,” the court held.
Constantine had also cleverly whipped up a sleight-of-hand rationale in his order to get around having to allow ICE to use the facilities at Boeing Field, to begin with, Constantine’s order is contrary to the original agreement with the federal government.
…The court also ruled that King County violated the terms of the agreement under which it reacquired Boeing Field from the federal government.
The federal government took over the airport in 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, part of preparations for deeper involvement in World War II.
When the federal government returned the airport to the county in 1948, it included the condition that the U.S. and “its agents” have the right to use the airport without charge.
King County had argued that, because ICE hires charter companies for the deportation flights, it could move to ban the flights without violating the agreement.
The appellate court, like the district court before it, disagreed.
“ICE charter flights are quite plainly flights of the United States through its agent, Classic Air Charter,” Bress wrote.
Twenty-nine pages along those lines should leave a mark.
Or…it would be if hardcore progressives were capable of ever learning anything.
Let the spankings continue.
Where’s that Denver mayor?
Read the full article here