Last summer, in Trump v. Hawaii, the Supreme Court invoked the plenary power doctrine to hold that the Trump administration’s so-called Muslim travel ban did not violate the First Amendment. Since its inception, the plenary power doctrine has been expanded beyond Indian Country to justify seemingly limitless power over all kinds of people at the margins of American empire. As in Trump v. Hawaii, the doctrine fuels much of our current immigration law and policy, including executive detention and family separation. The court should overturn the plenary power doctrine; the Indian Wars should serve as precedent for nothing. Maggie Blackhawk (Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe) is an assistant professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of “Federal Indian Law as Paradigm Within Public Law.” @MaggieBlackhawkThe Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor.

Source: New York Times May 26, 2019 22:52 UTC