In his majority opinion in the case overturning Roe v. Wade, Justice Samuel Alito insisted that the high court was finally settling the vexed abortion debate by returning the “authority to regulate abortion” to the “people and their elected representatives.” Despite these assurances, less than two years after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, abortion […]
Read MoreTag: Federal-State Relations (US)
Honorable vs. Dishonorable Is on the Ballot
Bret Stephens: Hi, Gail. It goes without saying that we wish Catherine, Princess of Wales, health and strength in her battle with cancer. Other than that, I think the best we can do to respect her privacy is to say as little about it as possible. Gail Collins: Absolutely no reason to torment public figures […]
Read MoreSixteen States Sue Biden Administration Over Gas Permit Pause
Louisiana and 15 other Republican-led states sued the Biden administration on Thursday over its decision to temporarily stop approving new permits for facilities that export liquefied natural gas. The lawsuit contends that the Biden administration acted illegally when it decided in January to pause the approvals so it could study how gas exports affect climate […]
Read MoreTexas Immigration Law: Here’s the Latest on SB4
A panel of three federal appeals court judges heard arguments on Wednesday in a bitter legal fight between Gov. Greg Abbott and the Biden administration over Texas’ new migrant arrest law, punctuating a dizzying series of legal developments over the previous 24 hours that left migrants and many law enforcement officials in Texas confused and […]
Read MoreTexas Migrant Law Is Latest Test of America vs. Its States
The face-off between Texas and the federal government over whether the state can enforce its own immigration policy reflects a broader and recurring feature of American politics: a number of hot-button issues have become proxy battles over who gets to decide. During the Trump administration, Democratic-run states like California and blue cities like New York […]
Read MoreAppeals Court Shaped by Trump Is at Center of Texas Border Debate
The 13 federal appeals courts across the country sit just below the U.S. Supreme Court. In theory, the appeals courts, each covering a judicial circuit, are equals. But often enough, one circuit court has taken on an outsize role in shaping seminal constitutional questions that end up before the Supreme Court. After Sept. 11, it […]
Read MoreGreg Abbott Has Been Gunning for a Battle on the Border
Since the start of the Biden administration, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has mounted an increasingly brazen challenge to the federal government over immigration, questioning the notion, long upheld by federal courts, that it is Washington, and not border states, that sets immigration policy. Mr. Abbott has been able to notch some important victories, pushing […]
Read MoreA Sweeping New Immigration Law Takes Effect in Texas
The most aggressive state-level immigration law in the nation went into effect in Texas on Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily sided with Gov. Greg Abbott in his increasingly bitter confrontation with the Biden administration over border policy. The law makes it a crime for migrants to enter Texas from Mexico without authorization, and […]
Read MoreTexas’ Immigration Crackdown Recalls Arizona’s Divisive ‘Show Me Your Papers’ Law
The Supreme Court’s decision on Tuesday allowing Texas to arrest and deport migrants resonated deeply in Arizona, which passed its own divisive crackdown against illegal immigration more than a decade ago. Arizona’s effort, which became known as the “show me your papers” law, set off a torrent of fear and anger after it passed in […]
Read MoreTexas’ Immigration Crackdown Recalls Arizona’s Divisive ‘Show Me Your Papers’ Law
The Supreme Court’s decision on Tuesday allowing Texas to arrest and deport migrants resonated deeply in Arizona, which passed its own divisive crackdown against illegal immigration more than a decade ago. Arizona’s effort, which became known as the “show me your papers” law, set off a torrent of fear and anger after it passed in […]
Read MoreSupreme Court Won’t Block, for Now, Aggressive Texas Immigration Law
The Supreme Court temporarily sided with Texas on Tuesday in its increasingly bitter fight with the Biden administration over immigration policy, allowing an expansive state law to go into effect that makes it a crime for migrants to enter Texas without authorization. As is typical when the court acts on emergency applications, its order gave […]
Read MoreSupreme Court to Weigh In on Texas Immigration Law
The Supreme Court on Monday again delayed acting on a request from the Biden administration to block a new Texas law empowering state and local police officers to arrest migrants who cross from Mexico without authorization. The law remains suspended in the meantime. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., the member of the court who oversees […]
Read MoreAmy Coney Barrett’s Opinion in Trump Ballot Case Sends a Distinct Message
Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s opinion was just a page long, all of two paragraphs. But in distancing herself from both blocs in Monday’s nominally unanimous Supreme Court decision rejecting a constitutional challenge to former President Donald J. Trump’s eligibility to hold office, she staked out a distinctive role. Justice Barrett was the third of Mr. […]
Read More‘Fix the Damn Roads’: How Democrats in Purple and Red States Win
When Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania got an emergency call about I-95 last June, his first thought turned to semantics. “When you say ‘collapse,’ do you really mean collapse?” he recalled wondering. Highways don’t typically do that, but then tractor-trailers don’t typically flip over and catch fire, which had happened on an elevated section of […]
Read MoreFederal Judge Blocks Sweeping Texas Immigration Law SB4
A federal court in Austin on Thursday blocked a Texas law that would allow state and local police officers to arrest migrants who cross from Mexico without authorization, siding with the federal government in a legal showdown over immigration enforcement. The ruling, by Judge David A. Ezra of the Western District of Texas, was a […]
Read MoreIn Eagle Pass, Texas, a Round of ‘Combat Golf’
At the center of a fierce legal battle over immigration enforcement lies a city park along the border in Eagle Pass, Texas. In January, Gov. Greg Abbott directed National Guard troops to take over the park, known as Shelby Park, to intercept migrants crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico. Now, at a place where residents […]
Read MoreWhen a Governor Escapes Gunfire
Feb. 15, 2024, 5:04 a.m. ET Feb. 15, 2024, 5:04 a.m. ET Credit…Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images If you hear a thunderclap don’t look for a lightning bolt, because the lightning comes before the thunder. Austan Goolsbee, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, used that metaphor on Wednesday when speaking to reporters at The […]
Read MoreThe Supreme Court Should Let the States Decide Whether Trump Should Be on Their Ballots
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Thursday about whether Colorado may keep Donald Trump off the presidential ballot because of the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The justices should seek a ruling that is originalist, modest and respectful of America’s democratic federalism. In particular, they should focus on two phrases: “the […]
Read MoreThe Texas Border War and the Battle Within the Supreme Court
Most people know by now about the border war between Texas and the United States playing out along the banks of the Rio Grande. Less obvious, but no less consequential, is an emerging border war inside the Supreme Court. At the physical border are 29 miles of coiled razor wire on the United States side […]
Read MoreU.S. v. Texas Is a Constitutional Crisis Stress Test, and We Are Failing
The confrontation between state and federal officials in the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, has created some wild hyperbole: From various commentators, it is the Fort Sumter for America’s second civil war; or the triumphant vindication of states’ rights at the expense of a weak president; or some twisted combination of both. After the […]
Read MoreDobbs Overturned Much More Than Roe v. Wade
Most of my writing this week was on the recent elections in Iowa and New Hampshire, but most of my reading was focused elsewhere. In particular, I want to highlight this report from Jessica Valenti, published in her excellent newsletter, on proposed travel bans for abortion care in Tennessee and Oklahoma. The Tennessee ban, proposed […]
Read MoreDonald Trump Is the Heir Apparent to George Wallace
In a post for the new Opinion blog — which you should read! — I argued that there’s nothing mysterious or hard to grok about Donald Trump’s appeal to a large segment of American voters. It is not hard to find, throughout American history, Trump-like demagogues with loyal followings. And these men tend to represent, […]
Read MoreWhat to Know About the Federal Law at the Heart of the Latest Supreme Court Abortion Case
One of the newest battlefields in the abortion debate is a decades-old federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, known by doctors and health policymakers as EMTALA. The issue involves whether the law requires hospital emergency rooms to provide abortions in urgent circumstances, including when a woman’s health is threatened by continuing […]
Read More3 Migrants, Including 2 Children, Drown Near Texas Border
Three migrants drowned in the Rio Grande by Eagle Pass, Texas, officials said Saturday, setting off a dispute among state and federal officials in what seemed to escalate the feud between the Biden administration and Gov. Greg Abbott over the stringent security measures the state has imposed to keep migrants from entering the country. According […]
Read MoreSupreme Court Reinstates Idaho’s Strict Abortion Ban for Now
The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily revived Idaho’s near-total ban on abortions, which had been partly blocked by a federal trial judge hearing a challenge to the law from the Biden administration. The court also agreed to hear an appeal in the case, scheduling arguments for April. The court’s brief order gave no reasons, which […]
Read MoreCourt Rules Texas Can Ban Emergency Abortions Despite Federal Guidance
Emergency room doctors in Texas are not required to perform emergency abortions despite federal guidance that requires hospitals to offer stabilizing care, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a ruling that sided with the state of Texas, which had sued the Biden administration, arguing […]
Read MoreCourt Rules Texas Can Ban Emergency Abortions Despite Federal Guidance
Emergency room doctors in Texas are not required to perform emergency abortions despite federal guidance that requires hospitals to offer stabilizing care, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a ruling that sided with the state of Texas, which had sued the Biden administration, arguing […]
Read MoreGreg Abbott’s Ridiculously Unconstitutional Immigration Fight
In mid-December, just one day after Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas signed into law a radical new immigration bill, immigrant rights groups challenged it in court as ridiculously unconstitutional. The groups felt they had no choice, but they did exactly what Texas was counting on, because the point of the law isn’t simply how outrageous […]
Read MoreTrump Is Not the Only Reason to Fix This Uniquely Dangerous Law
The Insurrection Act is a dangerous centuries-old federal statute that authorizes the president, with few restraints, to deploy the U.S. military inside the United States to suppress threats the president perceives to the constitutional order. Commentators have recently proposed tightening the law following reports that former President Donald Trump and his advisers are planning to […]
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