Virginia Republicans Glenn Youngkin, the governor, and Jason Miyares, the attorney general, are on board with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defying the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The time for action is now,” Miayres said in a statement from a press release that his office sent out on Monday, touting his participation in the latest political stunt from the far, far right – a letter demanding that the Biden administration either take immediate action to enforce the laws that secure the southern border or allow states like Texas to protect themselves from “the invasion.”
Complicating the optics of this stunt: Republicans are blocking a bipartisan deal to give President Biden more latitude, and resources, to deal with southern border issues, because their leader, the former president, Donald Trump, wants to use border issues to help his campaign.
Kinda puts the lie to that “time for action is now” line from Miyares, doesn’t it?
“The Biden administration must either fulfill its duty to enforce the laws that secure our southern border, or states like Texas will use their constitutional authority to address this invasion themselves and protect their citizens,” Miyares said in his press statement.
Youngkin weighed in on the border issue last week in a tweet: “The Biden administration continues to refuse to secure the border. Virginia supports Greg Abbott and Texas’ constitutional right to defend itself,” he said in a tweet.
Problem there being, the Supreme Court isn’t the Biden administration – and it was the Trump-packed high court that issued a 5-4 ruling last week allowing U.S. Border Patrol to take down razor wire that Texas authorities had put up along sections of the state’s border with Mexico.
It’s been well-established – as in, for more than 200 years – that the Supreme Court is the final arbiter on the application of the Constitution.
We ended up fighting a literal civil war more than 150 years ago when one region of the country decided to test its views on states rights, nullification and judicial review on the battlefield.
It’s Terry McAuliffe’s fault – he ran the worst campaign for governor in modern Virginia political history – that we have a governor and attorney general signing our names to this nonsense.
“The governor of Texas lost the case in the United States Supreme Court and is defying the Supreme Court, and some governors, including Gov. Youngkin, are saying, Yeah, go ahead and defy the Supreme Court, which I think is outrageous,” U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told reporters on a conference call on Tuesday.
“I mean, I, as far as I can recall, I think the governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia takes, in most circumstances, the same oath I do, in supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States. Supporting and defending the rule of law is part of the oath that we take,” Kaine said.
“I view people coming to Gov. Abbott, this is a political stunt, not a real, you know, legal position, telling the governor of Texas, Yeah, yeah, go ahead, Governor, you defy the Supreme Court. Well, that doesn’t take much backbone. But I think you’ll see a lot of people getting on board just trying to get political attention,” Kaine said.
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Chris Graham
