The march to complete the final stages of the border fence got a boost from up high on Monday.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case that challenged the federal government’s authority to supersede state and local laws blocking the fence’s construction - what little of it remains to be built. The case, with its origins in El Paso, challenged the constitutionality of a provision in a sweeping 2005 law that gave the Department of Homeland Security the power to waive local legal requirements in building the  700-mile border fence.

The 2005 law gives the DHS secretary extraordinary power to also circumvent federal laws - such as the Endangered Species Act - in constructing the fence.  The El Paso case appears to gotten considerable interest from the Supreme Court justices as the matter was brought up eight times in their conference, which according to The Hill, is unusual. However, in the end, the justices declined to hear the case, which upholds the 2005 law.

From here, all locals have left in their limited legal arsenel is U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of Brownsville. In current court proceedings, Hanen is pressing the DHS to answer some basic questions as it hurries to complete its fence by year’s end. Hanen wants to know how the federal government will ensure landowners access to their property when the fence goes up.

Thousands of acres of land will be stranded between the fence and the river when all construction of the structure is completed. The layout of the ill-begotten fence is essentially a straight one. The reality, however, is that the Rio Grande winds every which way and not in the straight line a government planner would prefer.

How will landowners access this no-man’s land between the fence and the river and how will landowners be compensated - if need be - for these stretches of property? That’s what Judge Hanen wants to know.  The right of landowners to protect their property and receive proper compensation for its sales - most essential American principles - are apparently no match for the 2005 law giving the DHS secretary unprecedented powers.

Ultimately, DHS will gets its way. The Supreme Court’s decision this week was essentially the final and definitive blow in assuring red state America that a border fence will be going up. It will be to our deteriment along the border, but it will make red staters feel better that something is being done to deter the journey of  the dishwashers, construction workers, landscapers and sheet rockers whose labor is diminishing America.

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