Concern Trolling on Immigration I

Via Edroso, we have warnings of TYRANNY coming from Damon Linker:

The rule of law is far more about how things are done than about what is done. If Obama does what he appears poised to do, I won’t be the least bit troubled about the government breaking up fewer families and deporting fewer immigrants. But I will be deeply troubled about how the president went about achieving this goal — by violating the letter and the spirit of federal law.

To grasp precisely what’s so galling about Obama’s proposed actions, it’s necessary to reflect on the nature of executive power and its permanent potential to become despotic.

The main problem with this argument is that Obama is not, in fact, violating the letter of the law. He just isn’t. The Ross Douthat posts that Linker links to have a lot about alleged violations of norms and slippery slopes, but as far as I can tell no argument that Obama is violating the text of the statue, because he isn’t. Nor are his actions even unprecedented. The arguments that his actions are unconstitutional are so weak that one-note anti-immigration crank Mickey Kaus concedes that for the Court to so rule would be analogous to Bush v. Gore.

All of this is standard issue. But what’s unique is that Linker goes on to defend George W. Bush’s actual violations of the U.S. Code and specific provisions of the U.S. Constitution by comparing them to Lincoln’s actions during an actual ongoing military insurrection. That’s how you concern troll, ladies and gentlemen.