More thoughts on Judge Hanen’s opinion on DAPA

At Slate. I thought the opinion was interesting but unpersuasive. Josh Blackman, by contrast, likes the opinion but not because of what it says:

Judge Hanen, however, showed his hand by explaining that the president had engaged in a “complete abdication” of the law. Rather than enforcing the law, Hanen saw Obama’s actions as making law: The executive is “is not just rewriting the laws; he is creating them from scratch.” This is the role of Congress, not the president.

So Blackman thinks that Judge Hanen’s real objection to DAPA is based on the Constitution, not the APA. He may well be right. But then why didn’t Judge Hanen rule on the constitutional merits? Probably because if he had, the opinion would have been even weaker than it was.