Remember when Barack Obama was lamenting the fact that he was not an Imperial President and could not issue an Executive Order amending immigration legislation? “I am not a dictator. I’m the president. … If in fact I could solve all these problems without passing laws in Congress then I would do so. … I’m not the emperor of the United States.” Of course, shortly after that claim, Obama did issue an EO which, in effect, upended congressional authority in such matters. He did so not expecting that his EO would survive judicial scrutiny, but to bolster Democrat support with the Latinos and other immigrant constituencies.

Indeed, on Monday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a lower court ruled correctly in staying the implementation of Obama’s executive action on immigration. Thus, Obama will now toss an appeal to the Supreme Court, and that decision, again very likely against Obama, will come just ahead of the 2016 election cycle. However, as I argued in “The REAL ‘Immigration Reform’ Strategy,” if Obama was serious about paving a fast lane for millions of immigrants, as he promised in 2008, he could have done so during his first two years in office, when Democrats held both the House and Senate. As I noted then, “If the courts rule against Obama, which they most certainly should if they have any interest in preserving our Constitution, then the Democrats can assail Republicans as immigration obstructionist ahead of the 2016 election. Thus, Democrats will receive credit from both their legal and illegal Latino constituencies for, ostensibly, attempting to provide them with nine million Permanent Residency or Employment Authorization cards, while not offending their union constituents who oppose the flood of cheap labor.” And that, of course, is their endgame strategy.

(Revised.)