Judge mulls Arizona immigration law
By JOSH GERSTEIN | 7/22/10 5:22 PM EDT; Updated: 7/23/10 6:51 AM EDT
PHOENIX— A federal judge is considering taking a scalpel to Arizona’s new state immigration-enforcement law, carving out certain provisions of the controversial measure while allowing other parts of the legislation to take effect as scheduled next week. In back-to-back hearings Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton seemed doubtful about at least three different aspects of the law, commonly known as S.B. 1070. She questioned Arizona’s lawyer about whether those parts of the law could pass Constitutional muster, and wondered whether allowing it to be implemented would “result in the arrest of tens of thousands of people” and their indefinite detention while awaiting the results of federal immigration checks.
The ACLU and other activist groups were stunned today as a federal judge rejected their “racial profiling” lawsuit against landmark immigration law S.B. 1070, and cleared the way for Arizona to require police to start questioning suspected illegal aliens they have stopped.
In a 12-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton rejected pleas by those groups that what has been absurdly dubbed the “papers please” provision of Arizona’s SB 1070 cannot be enforced without violating civil rights. Bolton said there is no evidence of ‘”racial profiling” against Latinos, as the plaintiffs accused, and they cannot block the law from being enforced. She said lawsuits contesting the legality of the provision are appropriate only after the law takes effect.
More to the point, the judge noted that the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year overturned a previous injunction she had issued blocking enforcement Section 2(b) which requires police to question those they have stopped if there is reasonable suspicion they are in this country illegally.
“This court will not ignore the clear direction in the (earlier) opinion that Subsection 2(b) cannot be challenged further on its face before the law takes effect,” Bolton wrote.
The activists had expected Bolton to side with them, given that she originally blocked the major sections of 1070 in 2010, before the Supreme Court upheld the central provision in June. thank you Jonnigirl
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