U.S. District Judge William Alsup of the Ninth District Court in California ruled last night that Trump cannot unilaterally end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on a whim.
Judge Alsup's ruling relied on Trump's own words expressing vague support for the program he canceled.
Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017
“We seem to be in the unusual position wherein the ultimate authority over the agency, the Chief Executive, publicly favors the very program the agency has ended,” [Judge Alsup] wrote. “For the reasons DACA was instituted and for the reasons tweeted by President Trump, this order finds that the public interest will be served by DACA’s continuation.”
It seems likely to me that Judge Alsup would not have ruled this way if Trump simply shut the hell up.
I suppose we should be thankful that he didn't shut up, at least in this case.