USA 1 Arizona 0 at the half.

“Governor, we have a problem.”

I read the court Order handed down by Susan R. Bolton, soon to be the nationally notorious, United States District Judge, who ruled on the USA v Arizona litigation. People magazine will likely do a bio on her next month. Her court order was 36 pages long. It might have been shorter, but I understand she was in a hurry.

Although I run the risk of being accused of deliberate simplification, it appeared there were two key premises for her decision. First, it was not in the “public interest” for Arizona to enforce its laws. And second, if enforcement was not stopped, the United States was likely to suffer “irreparable harm.” Precedence guides the law; but as I understand it without some verbal case stretching, there was no direct precedence in this case.

But wait. "Woe Nelly!" I saw no reference in the court Order for any evidence supporting either premise. For example, no one testified to the irreparable harm that the USA would have suffered and no evidence was provided that Arizona laws were not in the “public interest.” Further, there was a grand canyon like gap created by the lack of definition of who the public is. But a judge is power absolute, which is the ultimate aphrodisiac as Henry Kissinger used to say. If she says there was a likelihood of irreparable harm, then there was.

The Obama administration always resorts to assertions without proof to make a point. For example, the stimulus money did not create jobs, but it saved 3.6 million that would have been lost if the stimulus money had not been spent. The $185 billion Obama gave AIG saved the world from disaster. "Thank heaven," said AIG, the banks, Goldman Sachs and others who got the money. And now Arizona. The Feds say we need to crush Arizona's right to enforce its laws because if we do not, the USA and the public will suffer irreparable harm. And so the argument goes.

I am the public and I was not asked. Further, I am not sure who represented the USA, or what harm it would have suffered. Maybe the press would have had a field day criticizing the administration had the US attorney general lost this early skirmish.

It is still a battle of whose law is biggest-Arizona or the Fed? My take away from this metaphoric genital jousting is that the administration still does not like John McCain. It is going to take a real threat by a state to secede from the USA to keep the power mongers in check in Washington. The fact is the states are so beholding to the Feds checkbook that “states rights” are just a memory. However, Arizona has power and they control the electric lights in Los Angeles, where apparently the public resides. I say turn them off for a few minutes just to be ornery.

We shall see what the appeal looks like. There are other judges.