Border patrol

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked enforcement of some of the toughest provisions in Arizona's controversial illegal immigrant law.

Though the rest of the law is still set to go into effect today, the partial injunction against SB 1070 means Arizona, for the time being, will not be able to require police to determine the immigration status of anyone they stop or arrest.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vowed to take the case "all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary."

Scholars could be wrangling for months about the legal logic, here. The more important concern, now, is how the partial success of the Obama administration in blocking the will of law-abiding Arizonans is likely to affect national politics in the next 100 days.

The answer is that this ruling can only serve to fuel the brushfire of anti-incumbency now sweeping the nation. What have Americans been told since they were children? "If you don't like the law, or the way the law is being enforced, don't take the law in your own hands -- change it. Present your legislators with a list of your grievances. Lobby them to enact the laws you want. Go to the polls and vote."

Yet again and again, whether the issue be marijuana or assisted suicide or illegal immigration, Americans go to considerable trouble to make their political will known, only to see unelected federal judges and bureaucrats pat them on the heads like a patronizing school principal overruling a vote of his student council, saying, "How cute. But forget it."

If the last legal resort is to go to the polls in 96 days and throw the bums out, then a whole lot of arrogant, out-of-touch political hacks might as well start packing their bags right now.