AP Photo/Eric Gay
In an incredible development, Republicans are cheering a governor’s decision to ignore a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative supermajority.
It’s something of a throwback. Before the Civil War, states sometimes argued they did not have to abide by federal laws. But as the Constitution has stated from the beginning, federal laws have supremacy over state laws. Moreover, states must abide by federal court rulings.
But this week, 25 Republican governors signed a letter supporting Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s refusal to follow a U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing the federal government to remove razor wire Abbott ordered installed at the southern border.
The letter states in part:
The authors of the U.S. Constitution made clear that in times like this, states have a right of self-defense, under Article 4, Section 4 and Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Because the Biden Administration has abdicated its constitutional compact duties to the states, Texas has every legal justification to protect the sovereignty of our states and our nation.