As the Obama White House confronts the looming prospect of losing control of at least one house of Congress in the November midterm elections with a sputtering economy and disappointing job creation numbers, it has doubled down on some of its other unpopular stands on important issues. This has caused heightened dismay among Democrat incumbents across the country standing for re-election who fear that the administration has written them off, and is willing to see them go down to defeat.

The latest administration move to spark protests from elected Democrats across the country was the filing of a lawsuit by the Justice Department to challenge a popular Arizona immigration law scheduled to go into effect later this month. The law instructs state and local police to check the legal immigration status of anyone arrested in the state for another crime.

Even though the law explicitly forbids the practice of profiling by Arizona law enforcement officials, its critics, including left wing advocates for amnesty for illegal aliens, claim that it will inevitably lead to such practices. However, in its challenge to the law in federal court, the Justice Department lawsuit argues only that the state law unconstitutionally infringes on the sole right of the federal government to determine immigration policies.