Legal Commentary

Two Hearings Today on Arizona Immigration Law

By Jeralyn

Two lawsuits seeking to prevent the implementation of SB 1070, the Arizona immigration law, will be heard today. In the afternoon, the court will hear argument in the suit filed by the Justice Department. In the morning, it will hear from civil rights groups, including the ACLU. The ACLU's motion for preliminary injunction is available here.

The judge still hasn't ruled on the hearing last week in the lawsuit filed by a police officer. [More...]

Yesterday, the ACLU filed a lawsuit in federal court in Nebraska on behalf of landlords, tenants and employers in Fremont challenging a newly passed law seeking to banish persons alleged to be undocumented residents from rental homes in the 25,000-person town.

Like the recently passed law in Arizona, the Fremont law invites racial profiling against Latinos and others who appear "foreign." The group will file a motion shortly requesting that the court block the law from going into effect while the case is litigated.

The ACLU's lawsuit charges that Fremont's law is at odds with the clear constitutional mandate imposing a uniform federal immigration enforcement system and has a discriminatory effect on those who look or sound "foreign."

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 22, 2010 (boomark / email).