When Republicans challenged Obamacare in the courts, they had to overcome the hurdle of persuading the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a program enacted by Congress and signed by a president. The legal challenge by Texas and 25 other states to the administration’s executive actions on immigration is different. Congress never passed a Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (or DAPA) to grant legal status to some 5 million undocumented immigrants. President Obama himself never signed what his aides call an “executive action”; Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson takes that honor. Thus DAPA is a scary power grab that claims the president — and even his bureaucrats — have the power to override duly enacted federal law. Federal Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Brownsville, Texas, was right to issue a temporary injunction against it.

The president does not have the right to overturn laws he does not like. The former constitutional law professor knew that in 2010. When asked why he had not pushed through a bill to legalize undocumented immigrants, Obama told Univision: “I am president; I am not king. I can’t do these things just by myself. We have a system of government that requires the Congress to work with the executive branch to make it happen.”