Do you hear the rapidly elevating volume of the wailing, rending of garments, and gnashing of teeth coming from blue states and cities? Is it music to your ears?
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Americans have seen many instances of Democrats playing checkers while Donald Trump plays 4D chess. This may just be the best example yet:
Graphic: X Post
John Hinderaker at Powerline comments:
As I understand it, without customs cooperation it will not be possible for international flights to land in any sanctuary city–or, I assume, any sanctuary state. I am not sure whether the new policy would impact takeoffs.
If implemented, it would mean that international flights could not land in New York City, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Newark, Philadelphia, Portland, Seattle or San Francisco. If sanctuary states are banned, those would include all airports in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, D.C., Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. The disruption to international travel would be immense. The relatively few major airports where customs would still be available would be swamped with arrivals and perhaps departures, which would snarl international travel for the foreseeable future.
Could this be another viable bit of psychological judo, forcing arrogant, recalcitrant blue cities and states to recognize the Supremacy Clause, or does President Trump plan to use this not only to tear down sanctuary walls, but to wring this and additional concessions out of Democrats? It’s certainly a brilliant and innovative use of what appears to be the legitimate powers of the federal government.
The status of sanctuary jurisdictions thumbing their noses at federal law and the Constitution hasn’t been definitively adjudicated by the Supreme Court. One suspects the Trump DOJ thinks this just might be the kind of case that would compel the Court to grant cert and to rule in the federal government’s favor.
The mere threat of doing this will likely be enough for those blue jurisdictions to run to sympathetic federal judges, who, if the usual result is maintained, will be promptly overturned. This isn’t the sort of thing the Supreme Court would likely allow to stretch out for years. It implicates a fundamental constitutional question of the kind the Court doesn’t like to ignore.
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On one hand, blue jurisdictions might think this the ultimate political hill upon which to die and spend billions of taxpayer dollars fighting it. If they lose, and they eventually must if the Constitution and the Supremacy Clause are to be upheld, their game of ignoring both is coming to a rapid end, and with it, much of their political leverage. We could see a violent 2026 “Summer of Love” not provoked by race hustlers. On the other hand, the saner among them might accept the potentially inevitable and try to negotiate to retain as much power as possible to keep this away from the Supreme Court.
Could this—potentially requiring Democrats to work within the limits of the Constitution and obeying the rule of law—lead to blue state secession, even a second civil war? And would constitutional Americans be better off letting them, even helping, them secede?
There will certainly be additional developments in this matter and soon, but for the moment, Americans who appreciate the Constitution and the rule of law, and who take some small pleasure in seeing Democrat heads figuratively explode from self-inflicted, terminal Trump Derangement Syndrome, will enjoy the music.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer, and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
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