Immigration reform presents difficult, wrenching issues. It’s a subject on which reasonable people can disagree. When President Barack Obama issued his executive orders on immigration last November, he went out of his way to say that he did not want his action to be the last word — he wanted Congress to pass laws that would reform the system.

But instead of laws, we’ve gotten lawsuits. In a case heard on Thursday in Brownsville, 25 states went to court to claim that the executive order is unconstitutional. And instead of passing an immigration reform bill, the House has voted to obstruct not just President Obama’s recent order, but a series of modest, previously uncontroversial directives about immigration. Why? Because, said Republican Speaker John Boehner of Ohio: The President’s actions were “an affront to the rule of law and to the Constitution itself.”

As a matter of policy, maybe President Obama went too far, or not far enough. Maybe his action was politically savvy; maybe it was politically damaging. But if people are going to say that the action was unlawful, they should look at what the law actually is.

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