President Obama admitted Thursday that he’s powerless to do anything more on his own to ease immigration rules after the Supreme Court struck down his 2014 executive actions in a 4-4 decision, and indicated he’s equally powerless to get a ninth Supreme Court judge on the bench to prevent more split decisions.
“You know, I have pushed to the limits of my executive authority,” Obama said shortly after the Supreme Court ruled 4-4 in a key immigration case, which effectively locked in a lower court ruling against Obama’s executive actions.
“I don’t anticipate that there are additional executive actions that we can take … but we have to follow, now, what has been ruled on in the 5th Circuit … until an election and a confirmation of a ninth justice of the Supreme Court happens.”
But when it came to his chances on getting Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court before he leaves office, Obama could only fume about how things are working out how Republicans were hoping.
By blocking his nominee, Senate Republicans are “willfully preventing the Supreme Court from being fully staffed and functioning as our founders intended,” Obama said. “They are allowing partisan politics to jeopardize something as fundamental as the impartiality and integrity of our justice system, and Americans should not let it stand.”
Obama added that Senate Republicans’ unwillingness to even hold confirmation hearings for Garland creates a false constitutional crisis.
With almost no real options, Obama tried to downplay the decision as one that came from a broken court that doesn’t have enough members to make final decisions. He played the 4-4 tie up as an inconclusive result, even though its legal reality is to shatter his hopes that his immigration actions can survive.
“If we have a full court issuing a full opinion on anything, then we take it seriously,” he said as he described the outcome. “This, we have to abide by, but it wasn’t any kind of value statement or a decision on the merits on these issues.”
It’s an outcome his own vice president seemed to predict. In March, Vice President Joe Biden said leaving the Supreme Court with an even number of justices could throw major issues to lower courts, creating “fragmented judicial power” and providing contradictory decisions.
He warned that plaintiffs would “forum shop” to find an appellate court in a geographic area more conducive to their point of view.
“At times like these, we need more than ever to have a fully functioning Supreme Court … that can resolve divisive issues peacefully,” Biden said.
