David French of National Review Online places the debate over the Trump “travel ban” into proper constitutional perspective.
… [T]he core issue will be stark and clear: Do laws mean what they say?
Of all the thousands of pundits who have weighed in on the various iterations of Trump’s executive orders on immigration, Washington Post Supreme Court reporter Robert Barnes summarized the dispute better than anyone: To decide the case, the justices will consider “the president” versus “this president.”
In other words, the case hinges on whether Donald Trump’s words and actions are so egregious that the Supreme Court should depart from settled law and create new precedent specifically designed to rein him in. That is the essence of what I last year called “Trumplaw,” a series of unique legal decisions that are grounded not in law or precedent but instead in fear and #resistance. …
… It is not the judiciary’s job to determine whether the travel ban is the right response to instability, hostility, and terrorism in the targeted countries. It’s not the judiciary’s job to even evaluate the level of threat. The Supreme Court is not an unaccountable, omnipotent national-security council, and it’s certainly not the president’s conscience. It can’t and shouldn’t hunt for bad-faith motivations for otherwise entirely lawful policies.
