My gut says that Abbott knows this, but he just needs to string the legal process out 'til election day so he doesn't care.
That is the reasoning behind the affordable health care act on existing without government mandated levels of health insurance e. Your existence as a human affects commerce, and therefore is penalizable.
And the stupid 16th amendment. That's caused just as many problems as the commerce clause.
Ability to have income taxes, without the states objecting?
Or is your criticism that some states should pay more income tax than others?
Your existence can be taxed directly under the original constitution; that doesn't need the reinterpreted commerce clause.
> The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
That qualifier -- "without apportionment among the states" -- allows income taxes that aren't head taxes. Head taxes were already allowed. Nothing to do with any interpretation of the commerce clause.
Generally, no, and not in usurpation of Federal law. That's what the Commerce Clause literally says -- regulating foreign trade is a Federal role.
They or Congress can sue the Federal executive in Federal court.
How does it work the other way around? Does the federal court sue Texas?
If the federal government is doing a poor job, the remedy is to vote the bastards out, not subsume a federal obligation. This was made even clearer after the Civil War, because States had attempted to use such authority to disregard federal law regarding anti-foreign-competition tariffs.
Ultimately Texas benefits greatly from Mexican trade, so even by the dim bulb standard set by modern Texan officials, this is a really stupid measure.
States have very little control of their borders, either interstate or international or internal with Indian reservations, and that which they do have is what they are granted by Congress, to which the Constitution grants authority “[t]o regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.”
Yeah, but actual cross-border trade being an exclusive federal authority isn't one of the squinty bits.
> To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
But fair point, Commerce Clause also has a less well known international aspect, but court cases have indicated that the states do have some ability to control that trade.