Sunday, June 10, 2012

New front expected in fight over Arizona law

A forthcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision on Arizona's controversial immigration law — which some experts believe could uphold the most controversial aspects of the measure — won't end legal disputes on the matter and instead is likely to ignite renewed assaults by the law's opponents.
The court is evaluating the 2010 law on only the question of whether Arizona's attempt to fix its border problems is trumped by federal law. That means that opponents could still ask the courts to block enforcement of the law on other legal grounds.
For example, the high court isn't considering the possibility that racial profiling may arise from the law — because the Obama administration's lawsuit didn't challenge it on those grounds. The administration focused instead on whether federal law supersedes the state law, an issue known as "pre-emption."
"All the court is going to decide is the pre-emption issue," said Linton Joaquin, general counsel for the National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy group for low-income immigrants that's part of a coalition of opponents that filed a separate challenge. "But we think this law basically requires racial profiling by mandating that officers detain and investigate people that they have reasonable suspicions of being unauthorized."
The case was argued before the high court in April, and a ruling is expected by the end of June. Based partly on skeptical questions posed by justices during the hearing, legal experts expect that the court likely will uphold Arizona's requirement that police check the immigration status of people they stop for other reasons; that provision was put on hold by a judge in July 2010 and hasn't yet been enforced. Less controversial parts of the law were allowed to take effect.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/front-expected-fight-over-arizona-law-165433319.html

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