VERY DANGEROUS RULING, IN EFFECT ALLOWING A PRESIDENT TO LEGISLATE: When President Obama changed immigration law without going through Congress, we were told, “it’s a policy choice allowed by the discretion given the president under the immigration laws to decline, temporarily, to deport ‘dreamers’ until Congress decides what to do. It’s not ‘legislating’ because any future president can just as easily change the policy.” But today, in a 5-4 decision written by Chief Justice Roberts, the Supreme Court has made it difficult for such policy choices to be reversed, in large part, it seems, because the policy choice led to regulations that created “reliance interests” among dreamers, requiring the Trump administration to more strongly justify reversing what was supposed to have been a mere policy decision. This is a very bad day for the separation of powers, and with Roberts once again punting, it brings up a truism I’ve noted many times: you don’t make significant, lasting change on the Supreme Court with a 5-4 majority, you need at least 6-3, maybe 7-2.