After Judge’s Ruling, Obama Delays Immigration Actions By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and ASHLEY PARKER FEB. 17, 2015 WASHINGTON — Just one day before undocumented immigrants were set to begin applying for work permits and legal protections, the Obama administration announced on Tuesday that it would delay carrying out President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, saying a federal judge’s last-minute ruling had tied the White House’s hands.

From the New York Times: I’m no legal scholar, but the concept of “prosecutorial discretion” has obvious limits that Obama is trying to steamroll. Consider the “prosecutorial discretion” of a local district attorney. He can fail to file charges against lawbreakers because of a host of administrative reasons — the odds of conviction seemed low, the jail is full, traffic was heavy, etc.

But what the DA absolutely can’t do is print up Get Out of Jail, Free cards and hand them out to his potential political supporters, and encourage their relatives to move to town with the hint that they’ll eventually be entitled to their own Get Out of Jail, Free cards. That’s not within any reasonable definition of “prosecutorial discretion.”