Federal Ruling Says Arizona Overstepped with SB1070
Another victory for the Obama administration as Arizona continues their fight to be the first “Papers Please!” state in the US under the guidance of bigots Russell Pearce and Kris Kobach.
A federal appeals court ruling on Monday reinforced the lower court decision last year by Judge Susan Bolton to ban one of the most controversial components of Arizona’s immigration law from taking effect. The law has sparked much debate and protest since it was originally enacted in April of 2010, and the primary dispute around the legislation has been over the edict that allows Arizona officials to question anyone in the state who they believe to be in the country illegally, and arrest them without a warrant. Many pro-immigration reform groups have called this racial profiling.
Thethree-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to reject the law, supporting the lower court ruling in July that said the blocked provisions are unconstitutional and it violates the right for the Federal government to exclusively enforce immigration policy. Judge Carlos Bea illuminated the widespread misinterpretation of the Arizona Immigration Law, writing that, “The majority misreads the meaning of the relevant federal statutes to ignore what is plain in the statutes—Congress intended state and local police officers to participate in the enforcement of federal immigration law.” Conflicting objectives will make the fight to overturn this law even more difficult as Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R), publicly vowed to take the SB 1070 case all the way to the Supreme Court.