Justice Department has strong words for judicial opinion purporting to declare immigration actions unconstitutional

The Justice Department has responded to an opinion by Judge Arthur Schwab holding that President Obama's recent executive actions on immigration are illegal. Bloomberg News reports:

"The decision is unfounded and the court had no basis to issue such an order," according to the statement. "No party in the case challenged the constitutionality of the immigration-related executive actions and the department's filing made it clear that the executive actions did not apply to the criminal matter before the court. Moreover, the court's analysis of the legality of the executive actions is flatly wrong."

While reasonable people may differ on the underlying legal question (Ilya and I think the president had sufficient authority to take these steps; others do not), there seems to be widespread agreement that Schwab reached out unnecessarily (and inappropriately) to reach the question. Indeed, as Orin noted, it was an "exceedingly strange" opinion.