The Supreme Court in June ruled that the Trump administration cannot scuttle the Obama-era program known as DACA that protects people brought to America as children from being deported. It was bad enough the administration was so intent on threatening these young people, who came here through no fault of their own and are generally American in every way but on paper. Now it's clear that the White House is simply ignoring the high court's ruling.

A president bucking the authority of the Supreme Court is dangerous in ways that go far beyond the immigration issue. Congressional Republicans must push back on this ominous new abuse — or accept blame for a precedent that could fundamentally damage the separation of powers so crucial to American democracy.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program provides two-year renewable reprieves from deportation for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. Applicants must meet strict conditions to qualify, including finishing school and having no criminal record. The program — which currently covers some 650,000 "Dreamers" — enjoys wide public support as a humane, fair-minded response to their dilemma. The Trump administration's quest to kill the program has never been anything but a malicious appeal to xenophobic extremists.

In a June 18 ruling, the Supreme Court nixed the administration's plans to dismantle the program, saying the administration hadn't provided legal justification. The ruling was a temporary reprieve at best, one that all but invited the White House to come up with that legal justification and try again.

But in another demonstration of its contempt for constitutional constraints on the presidency, the administration hasn't even bothered. Instead, it recently announced plans to continue rejecting all new DACA applications. It's also cutting the span between renewals for those already in the program, from two years to one.

The unspoken, but loud-and-clear message from President Donald Trump to the Supreme Court on the issue of compliance is this: Make me.

The wanton cruelty this administration is inflicting on young people who are doing their best to follow the rules is depressingly familiar. But defying the high court is dangerous new territory. Trump's penchant for testing constitutional boundaries is well known. If he gets away with this, what's to keep him from ignoring future court rulings on other topics? Considering that this is a president who recently suggested postponing the November elections, the potential nightmare scenarios of a toothless court become clear.

The Constitution provides no enforcement mechanism for Supreme Court rulings. It counts on presidential good faith — completely nonexistent today — and congressional oversight, which has so far failed due to Trump's Republican enablers. They now have a special duty to stop this destructive precedent in its tracks.

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