Zohran Mamdani’s suggestion that he would seek the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu if the Israeli prime minister came to New York for the United Nation’s General Assembly in September is far more than an exercise in political theatre. It exposes a deeply troubling conception of public office: one in which the mayor of America’s largest city imagines himself as an international magistrate rather than the chief executive responsible for public safety, infrastructure and municipal governance.

The contradiction is striking. Mamdani invokes international law when it suits his political preferences, yet proposes to wield local executive power as though it were unconstrained by constitutional limits, federal authority or diplomatic immunity. He presents himself as a defender of legal norms while advocating an act that would plunge New York into a constitutional and diplomatic crisis. The rule of law requires institutions........

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