Biden was never going to get away with this on the merits. His case was risible from start to finish. But he could, theoretically, have got away with it if the Court had decided that nobody had the authority (“standing”) to challenge him. Had that happened, the judiciary would have signaled that it was powerless in the face of executive overreach (of the sort that James Madison described as “tyranny“), and a terrible precedent would have been set: that if the executive branch could find a way to ignore the Constitution that did not meet the Supreme Court’s standing rules, it could get away with it. This would have been deleterious for America.

Happily, the Court did its job and upheld our framework of government. Today is a day for rejoicing that it did. Article I is still intact. Happy Independence Day to all.

[Give credit to Chief Justice John Roberts for recognizing that threat, too. As I pointed out in my analysis, Roberts nearly concluded the opinion by pointing out the lack of authority in the executive for appropriating money, especially on the scale imagined. — Ed]