Judge Jennifer Walker-Elrod, Judge Jerry Smith and Moonbat Judge Carolyn King heard oral arguments Friday from an Obama administration appeal to lift the Judge Hannen injunction blocking implementation of President Obama’s Executive Action on Immigration. (full backstory here)

(via Politico) […] The Obama administration has argued that the executive actions were a standard use of prosecutorial discretion, since the federal government does not have the resources to deport the estimated 11 million immigrants here illegally. But Judge Jerry Smith disputed that contention.

“It puts them one step ahead in terms of being eligible for lots of potential benefits, whether those are Social Security and Medicare, work authorization, earned income tax credits, and on the state level, drivers’ licenses,” Smith said of immigrants who would benefit from Obama’s actions. “Just seems to me that … it really is a lot more than prosecutorial discretion.”

And Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, like Smith a Republican appointee, repeatedly grilled administration lawyers on Friday.

[…] She had questions on whether the Department of Homeland Security had “boundless” authority to grant work permits, and whether so-called “deferred action” — stopping deportation of certain undocumented immigrants — could give work authorization to a broad class of people here illegally.

“It would seem that it would be unlawful to allow other people to have deferred action with work authorization when who gets work authorization is specifically limited to very narrow classes,” Elrod said.

Benjamin Mizer, the acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Division, argued that both of the elements at the heart of Obama’s directive — stopping deportations and subsequently granting those immigrants work permits — were legally sound.

“It doesn’t make much sense to say, ‘We’re not going to be able to remove you right now, so you have to go back out into the country, but you’re not allowed to work, [and] if you’re gonna work, it has to be off the books,’” Mizer said. “As a policy matter, it doesn’t make sense.”  (read more)

The lone moonbat Judge Carolyn Dineen King, who was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, repeatedly pressed Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller on an argument that the states suing Obama did not want to give immigrants the legal ability to work — even if they were unlikely to be deported.

“You’re not contesting the aliens’ ability to stay here. They can stay,” King told Keller. “What you don’t want them to be able to do is work.” (link)

Notice the moonbat judge is focused on something other than the legality of creating an entire new subset of employment eligibility law. Judge King totally misses the entire reason why the action has been blocked – It is not a matter of illegals being able to work, it is a matter of President Obama re-writing employment law to allow them to be able to work.

The unconstitutional aspect is in the DHS issuing work permits, regardless of what state counsel “want’s illegals to be able to do”, or not be able to do.

Social Justice Moonbattery in the Judiciary.

Read the entire politico article – It’s worth the read and includes the ultimatum that Judge Hannen has given to DHS head Jeh Johnson.

Reminder: The removal of the injunction is the goal for the White House, they know they cannot win the underlying case based on the constitutionality of the Executive Action.