This dispute will play out politically more than legally. The “Civil War” talk is hyperbole, driven by Democrats who grasp that Biden’s position is not politically sustainable, especially with Election Day just months away. This is why Biden is desperate to cut a deal with moderate Senate Republicans. When that falls apart — not because of Donald Trump’s machinations but because it is a terrible deal for the country — Biden will either have to cave (i.e., engage in actual border enforcement and refrain from interfering in state border enforcement) or seek election as the president who is suing the beleaguered people of Texas on behalf of illegal aliens — having ushered into the country more than 6 million of them (more than the population of 33 states).

If we’re going to talk about who is defying the law, that’s easy — it’s Biden, not Texas. When it is said that the states must comply with federal law, that means statutory law, not the whims of the executive branch. Biden’s policy is not federal law. Federal law, which the president refuses to faithfully execute, calls for detention. As I have explained before, Biden’s actions are in gross violation of the law.

[Indeed. And as Andy explains in the beginning of the essay, Abbott isn’t ‘defying SCOTUS’ because the court never ordered Texas to do anything at all. It only allowed the Biden administration to dismantle the concertina wire it installed directly on the border. Technically speaking, the order doesn’t even prevent Texas from re-installing it in the exact same place. They just can’t stop the Border Patrol from dismantling it if they do. — Ed]