Even though President Barack Obama was warned not to take the executive actions he did on illegal immigration in 2014, he still wondered Thursday how he possibly could have been told he was wrong.
In a tie decision by the United States Supreme Court that upholds a lower court ruling, his plan to give a reprieve to millions of illegal immigrants who should be deported was struck down.
"The Constitution is clear," said U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan. "The president is not permitted to write laws - only Congress is. This is another major victory in our fight to restore the separation of powers."
What is it about the law that Obama, four members of the Supreme Court and Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton don't understand? Illegal immigration is still illegal.
The president, weakly, opined that the decision "takes us further from the country that we aspire to be."
We believe Obama hasn't taken a read of the country's tea leaves lately. The U.S. doesn't aspire to be a country where illegal immigration is welcome. Legal immigration, it's for. That's been a hallmark of the country's history.
Clinton, meanwhile, who treats the law as if it is only in her purview, said the Supreme Court decision was "purely procedural" and leaves "no doubt" the executive actions were within the president's authority.
Her comments make us wonder what part of the lower court decision she didn't understand.
Lawyers for the 26 states, including Tennessee, which filed suit over the president's action, acknowledged the president's latitude in immigration on an individual basis. But they took issue with the blanket grant of a "lawful presence" to the group, which numbers around 5 million.
With the matter settled for now, Obama is unlikely to make any more such large-scale immigration pronouncements for his remaining seven months in office.
Although the president "lost" one on his immigration decision, he "won" one the same day from the Supreme Court on allowing race to be a factor in college admissions. Yet, his comment on the ruling was puzzling, given that it was refuted by the decision that had just been handed down.
"We are not a country that guarantees equal outcomes," Obama said, "but we strive to provide an equal shot to everybody."
If race is a factor, though, everybody automatically does not have an equal shot.
Justice Samuel Alito, warming we hope to take on the rhetorical fire of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, said the majority 4-3 decision "is affirmative action gone berserk," is misguided and "is simply wrong."