Then Walker was barraged with negative comments on Facebook. Just 48 hours later, Walker flipped.According to Neumann, Walker went from being a "surprisingly tough" critic of a recently notorious Arizona immigration law, to whimpering like a baby at the mutiny of his Facebook BFFs,** to asserting he'd be "comfortable" signing the Arizona bill into law (whose own governor might be less comfortable with a Milwaukee county government functionary elbowing onto her desk and stealing her pen).
Which is intriguing because a few weeks ago Scott Walker announced he'd authorize his prospective attorney general to join a Florida lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a certain provision in the federal health care reform statutes.
Walker and his cohorts insist the latter's so-called individual insurance mandate exceeds Congress's power under the U.S. Constitution's Interstate Commerce Clause (even though the federal government will primarily defend the mandate as a tax).
Yet the power to "establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization" is specifically enumerated to Congress and not Arizona nor even Wisconsin. So to the extent that Arizona encroaches on Congress's enumerated power to legislate on immigration matters, the Grand Canyon State's initiative is a constitutional dead letter.
That is, among the scholarly set at least, it inspires little "comfort."
And that concern is entirely separate from the projected glut of unreasonable searches and seizures attached to attempts at enforcing the Arizona law (which some court's injunction is likely to prevent anyway, another reason not to get too "comfortable").
On the other hand, Congress's ability to impose a tax in the form of buying into a federally regulated health insurance system (there's no dispute that health care runs on interstate commerce, the regulation of which is also clearly federal domain) is a far more open question.
Fortunately Scott Walker isn't running for the Supreme Court, because evidently his "judicial philosophy" is lacking in consistency.
Meanwhile, F. James Sensenbrenner is still soliciting activist judges.
* Neumann has gone rogue, spurning the Party faithful at this weekend's State Republican debauch in Milwaukee, which culminates in Scott Walker's allegedly triumphant return from his Apology Tour of President Obama's investments in Wisconsin schools and families.
** We don't know which ones waited until they got off work.
Best part of the Neumann spot is when they alter Walker's mouth a little near the beginning. I think they make him look like Mark Belling.
ReplyDeleteBut the AZ law doesn't attempt to establish a rule for naturalization does it?
ReplyDeleteIsn't it a mandate to local police to enforce the rules established by Congress?
Is enforcement of federal law reserved strictly for the executive branch?
Full disclosure: I'm an AZ native. 10 WI winters have left me so pale though, if I were to return, I would likely be mistaken for an illegal alien from Norway.
The details of the immigration bill are entirely beside the point -- unless you can provide a complete debriefing of it in less than 60 second.
ReplyDeleteTV ads aren't about creating policy. They're about shaping perception, and right now "Arizona's new immigration law" is a signifier for "tough on illegal immigration."
10 WI winters have left me so pale though, if I were to return, I would likely be mistaken for an illegal alien from Norway.
ReplyDeleteUnusually pale, huh? Sounds like you're exactly the sort of person this new law is intended to draw to the attention of law enforcement.