Judge Binds Up Loose-Tongued Complainers

Allows Trump’s Migrant Plan March On

In a curious age where the loudest voice in the room often wins the argument, it is rare and commendable to see the Law–yes, that old mule–bray with clarity. And bray it did, when U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a man of the robe and, it would seem, the spine, ruled that the Trump administration may indeed proceed with its plan to require illegal migrants to register with the federal government.

The plan, mind you, is no wild-eyed invention cooked up in a fever dream of tyrants but a fairly sensible notion–register those who ought not to be here, lest the whole enterprise of nationhood collapse under an accommodating weight. The folks bringing the lawsuit–the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and the United Farm Workers of America — hollered like a cat in a rain barrel, claiming all manner of ills and injuries.

But when asked to show their bruises, they could only point at the wind and cry, “Look what it done to me!” McFadden looked at their claims and declared them “speculative,” which in legal parlance is the equivalent of saying, “You fellas don’t have a dog in this fight.”

In a passage that would make even Solomon nod in approval, he wrote: “Plaintiffs are not likely to succeed on the merits of their claim because they have failed to demonstrate that they have a ‘substantial likelihood’ of standing.” Or, to put it in the plain speech of the Truckee River: “Y’all don’t got a leg to stand on.”

Of course, the opposition was quick to unleash its usual assortment of dire warnings, suggesting this measure was merely the first stone on the road to concentration camps. The National Immigration Law Center, which represented the plaintiffs, cried that the plan is straight from the “authoritarian playbook,” and that soon we might see barbed wire and jackboots marching down Main Street.

Now, I have traveled this country north to south, east to west, from the hollers of Kentucky to the canyons of California, and I tell you plain–Americans are a generous people. But even a generous man locks his doors at night. The idea that a sovereign nation may not inquire who resides within her borders, lest it offend the sensibilities of those who arrived uninvited, is the notion that could only be cooked up in a parlor with too much tea and not enough firewood.

Meanwhile, the House has passed the SAVE Act, requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote–a proposition so stunning in its obviousness that one wonders if we will soon need laws reminding people to breathe.

So, it is a victory–not for cruelty or tyranny, but for the simple and enduring idea that a nation has the right to know who is living under its roof. And if that seems controversial, then perhaps controversy has lost all meaning–and common sense with it.

And that, dear reader, is the news from this strange and splendid republic, where we still believe–at least on some days–in the rule of Law.