President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have made it
clear that they don't like Arizona's anti-immigration law, which some
police chiefs warn
could actually increase
crime. Now they might be doing something about it. Could the
federal government succeed in knocking the law down? Here's the latest
on a possible challenge from the Department of Justice.
- 'Drafting
a Plan' for Challenge The Arizona Daily Star's John Bolton says, "a Justice
Department legal team is drafting a plan to challenge Arizona's new
immigration law, SB 1070. All of the reports stress that a final
decision to challenge the law has not been made and would face hurdles
from other legal analysts within the Justice Department and in the White
House. But the team is reported to be developing a challenge based on
the idea that Arizona overstepped its authority."
- How They
Would Challenge The Chicago Tribune's Richard Serrano
and Kate Linthicum say a challenge would "assert that Arizona's
controversial immigration law is unconstitutional because it impinges on
the federal government's authority to police the nation's borders."
Additionally, "the [Justice] department's civil rights section is
considering possible legal action against the law on the basis that it
amounts to racial profiling of Latinos who are legally in Arizona but
conceivably could be asked to provide documents proving their
citizenship."
- Federal Challenge May Be 'Imminent' The Los
Angeles Times' Kate Linthicum reports,
"During the hourlong meeting [with police chiefs], Holder told the
officials that a federal challenge to Arizona’s law may be imminent,
according to participants. ... Justice officials have said that they may
challenge the law on two grounds – for subjecting people to racial
profiling and for usurping the federal government's power to enforce
immigration law."
- Civil Rights Investigation Underway The Associated Press' Pete Yost reports, "The Obama
administration is weighing a possible court challenge to the Arizona law
and 'the attorney general said he would be making decisions fairly
quickly,' though he did not elaborate, said Harris, who is police chief
in Sahuarita, Ariz." Yost adds, "Three weeks ago, the Justice
Department's civil rights division head
told some Arizona leaders that DOJ staff is analyzing the potential
effects of the new state law."
- 'Partisan Attack' National
Review's James Jay Carafano scoffs,
"It’s perfectly clear that their recent doings on border security and
immigration reform are driven purely by politics. ... It’s not often you
see the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer stage a partisan attack
on a state for trying to uphold federal immigration law."
- Law's Changes Protect From Challenge Cato's Ilya Shapiro reads the amended law and notes the big changes. "All of these changes unquestionably improved the civil rights
provisions of the law and should further protect it from successful
legal challenge — again without saying anything about the law’s policy
wisdom."
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