Zonie63 -> AZ SB1070 to go before Supreme Court this week (4/22/2012 12:39:18 PM)
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This should be interesting. http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/2012/04/06/20120406sb1070-defense-supreme-court.html Arizona will go before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to defend its immigration law, Senate Bill 1070, in a case that will determine the future of immigration enforcement nationwide. National legal experts predict the high court's ruling will be a landmark decision that determines whether states have the right to enforce federal immigration laws as they see fit. It is unusual for the Supreme Court to accept a case that hasn't yet been fully adjudicated by the lower courts, but the court appears to want to resolve the issue sooner rather than later. Several other states have passed laws similar to SB 1070, prompting conflicting legal rulings in various appeals-court districts. "This could be one of the most significant immigration decisions of the last 20 or 30 years," said University of California-Davis School of Law Dean Kevin Johnson. "It raises all kinds of issues that make for great cases: Immigration is an issue of great public importance, it raises issues of state versus federal power and it comes at a time when there is a lot of attention being focused on what's going on on the border." http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2012/04/21/20120421supreme-court-hear-sb1070-arguments.html For Arizonans, SB 1070 is about illegal immigration. For the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear arguments about the constitutionality of some of its provisions on Wednesday, the issue is federalism -- the respective authority and roles of the federal and state governments. ... According to the Brewer administration, Arizona is disproportionately affected by illegal immigration and has a sovereign right to try to address those effects. The Brewer brief to the Supreme Court acknowledges the singular right of the federal government to determine who can be in the country legally and under what conditions. But it asserts the right of the state to supplement enforcement of federal law so long as state efforts don't directly contravene federal law. ... The Obama administration has a radically different view of what states can and cannot do regarding illegal immigration. According to its brief, Congress has given the executive branch broad discretion regarding the enforcement of federal immigration laws so that a variety of objectives can be balanced and harmonized, including relations with foreign governments. States can assist with the enforcement of federal immigration laws, but only in cooperation with and under the direction of the federal government. States cannot unilaterally take actions that conflict with how the executive branch has decided to exercise its discretion regarding enforcing the immigration laws.
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