This week, President Trump signed an executive order that purports to deny federal funds to “sanctuary cities”—i.e., cities that will not cooperate with federal government in deporting illegal immigrants. For years, Republicans have made defunding sanctuary cities a legislative goal. And with a new Republican administration, it seems like the GOP will (maybe have) accomplish(ed) this goal. 

But President Trump’s executive order raises some major constitutional issues, regardless of whether defunding sanctuary cities is good policy. Namely, President Trump’s executive order may violate the Tenth Amendment’s anti-commandeering principle. Simply, the Tenth Amendment prohibits the federal government from forcing states officials to act on behalf of the federal government.

This is normally the point when Republicans are supposed to raise hell about federal overreach.

*crickets*

‘Member when Republicans rallied behind the Tenth Amendment and federalism during the Obama Presidency? 

I do. But over the past week, Republican politicians and the right-wing media have been awfully silent about President Trump’s potential federal overreach. Certainly, there are arguments that the anti-commandeering principle is inapplicable to President Trump’s executive order. One could even argue that the anti-commandeering principle is complete hogwash. And one should definitely criticize Democrats for flip-flopping on federal overreach concerns. Yet for a party and movement that sold itself on federalism for the past decade, it is SAD! that they have not even raised any potential concerns about these issues.

President Trump’s term is only a week old. And considering Republicans’ obsession with defunding sanctuary cities, it is entirely possible that this is a temporary lapse in judgment. Going forward, the Trump administration may embrace federalism. It may even let California to go to the moon!

But until Republicans truly embrace the idea that states (or in this case cities) are laboratories of democracies, I only have memories of a Republican Party that cared about federalism. I ‘member those days.