Super Stupid

The Texas Anti-Refugee Lawsuit Was Thrown Out of Court

Written by SK Ashby

The lawsuit filed by the Abbott administration aimed at blocking any refugees from being resettled in Texas has been thrown out of court.

If Texas had an attorney general who isn't a batshit fraudster this would have been obvious, but it was left to Judge David Godbey to remind the state that it does not have the authority to block resettlement.

U.S. District Judge David Godbey ruled the U.S. government, not individual states, has the authority to set immigration policy, and found that Texas brought no plausible argument to back its claims that the International Rescue Committee relief agency was unlawful in bringing Syrian refugees into the state. [...]

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission had argued that the federal government and the relief agency violated their statutory duty under a law called the U.S. Refugee Act to consult with the state in advance of placing refugees in Texas.

"The Court previously determined that the Refugee Act does not confer a private right of action for the States to enforce its provisions," Godbey wrote.

We're all familiar with the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution which states that federal law is the supreme law of the land, but the above passage that I've highlighted is key to understanding just how fucking stupid this lawsuit filed by the Abbott administration was.

Texas argued that the federal government did not meet an obligation to consult the state, but the state did not want to be consulted. The state refused to work with the federal government.

How can the federal government meet a non-existent obligation to consult the state if the state refuses to consult?

As Judge Godbey pointed out in his ruling, the federal government isn't actually obligated to do that.