Rantz: Court smacks Constantine’s blocking violent criminals from deportations. He owes us money

Efforts by King County Executive Dow Constantine to prevent the federal government from using Boeing Field for deportations of dangerous, violent criminal illegal immigrants have again been slapped down by a court. Yet, taxpayers still have to foot the bill for Constantine’s ideologically-driven campaign to stop the federal government from enforcing the law. He should pay the county back.

In 2019, Constantine issued an executive order blocking the Trump administration from using Boeing Field for the purposes of deporting criminal illegal immigrants. When announcing the order, Constantine’s office boastfully noted that the county was “leading the way” to block Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as if that was something to be truly proud of.

Though these deportations were a way to remove dangerous, violent felons, Constantine, like many radical progressives, didn’t care. They see no difference between someone who came to this country illegally for a better life and the violent gang member committing rape or murder while in this country unlawfully.

The Trump administration responded by suing in federal court. The liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sided against Constantine’s radical agenda.

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Why did the court reject the Dow Constantine executive order blocking deportations?

The court affirmed a district court’s decision, making it clear the Dow Constantine executive order violated the Supremacy Clause and a contractual agreement it had with the federal government. Despite Constantine’s ideological wishes, local jurisdictions have limitations on obstructing federal immigration operations.

The court’s ruling was rather scathing in Constantine’s clear abuse and unconstitutionality of his executive order.

“King County’s Executive Order on its face discriminates against the United States ‘by singling out’ the federal government and its contractors ‘for unfavorable treatment’ or ‘regulat(ing) them unfavorably on some basis related to their governmental ‘status,'” the court wrote in its ruling.

“The Executive Order therefore discriminatorily burdens the United States specifically because of federal immigration operations, based on the County’s disagreement with federal policy. This discrimination, plain on the face of the Order, contravenes the intergovernmental immunity doctrine,” the ruling added.

A laughable legal argument

The county tried using the marketplace participant legal argument to justify Constantine’s unconstitutional executive order.

This legal doctrine, in this context, essentially argued that King County was acting as a mere participant in the marketplace by offering up the airport to the federal government. That it should be able to act like a private airport would. But this absurd-on-its-face legal claim was wholly rejected by the Ninth Circuit.

“(N)o court has previously applied the market participant doctrine as a defense to state or local actions that otherwise violate principles of intergovernmental immunity. But even assuming the County could mount a market participant defense in this context, the County was not acting as a market participant,” the court wrote.

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Taxpayers are on the hook

Through a spokesperson, Dow Constantine said his office would abide by the ruling and decline to seek another appeal to block deportations. He didn’t really have a choice. If he can’t win over the very liberal Ninth Circuit, he’d have zero chance of convincing the conservative United States Supreme Court that he could legally block ICE from enforcing federal law.

This conclusion was inevitable. Yet, Constantine hopes he’ll get a pat on the back for trying to uphold the so-called values of Seattle and King County voters. He deserves no such praise. It’s quite the opposite, in fact: He should be condemned for wasting taxpayer dollars on his performative, virtue signaling executive order. And he should get a bill to cover the cost of his politically self-serving executive order.

While Constantine may think he earns social currency for seeking to disrupt ICE deportation flights, the reality is if people knew that the federal government prioritizes some of the most vile and disturbing criminal illegal immigrants, they’d hardly think the executive is acting with moral clarity and certainty. All you have to do is look at this last election and where Americans stand on illegal immigration.

Most Americans understand the clear difference between a rapist and a DREAMer, even in Seattle and King County. Yet, Constantine fought to keep rapists in this country. Why is that? It would be great if someone in left-wing media could pose that question to Constantine or any other open-borders Democrat. It deserves an answer in light of the county wasting precious tax dollars to fight a court battle to earn Constantine woke points.

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