High Court Upholds Arizona Law Penalizing Employers Over Illegal Immigrant Workers

Image via Wikipedia

This may change the landscape of immigration enforcement forever. This is from the U.S. Supreme Court which binds all of the lower courts, state and federal.

The Supreme Court has sustained Arizona’s law that penalizes businesses for hiring workers who are in the United States illegally, rejecting arguments that states have no role in immigration matters.

via High Court Upholds Arizona Law Penalizing Employers Over Illegal Immigrant Workers – FoxNews.com.

The article further states:

The decision upholding the validity of the 2007 law comes as the state is appealing a ruling that blocked key components of a second, more controversial Arizona immigration enforcement law. Thursday’s decision applies only to business licenses and does not signal how the high court might rule if the other law comes before it. (emphasis added)

I would not be so quick to come to that conclusion. While I have not yet read the opinion, I am fairly confident that the reporter’s conclusion of the opinion “rejecting arguments that states have no role in immigration matters” is probably not simply a bare assertion by the reporter, but is based on at least a modicum of analysis.

If that is indeed a principle now found in the jurisprudence of the high court, then it will be a factor in any decision construing a state law affecting immigration enforcement. There certainly will be additional factors in a given contested state statute subject to attack, but the fundamental right of a state to legislate in this area — at least to some extent — is now a given.

The decision upholding the validity of the 2007 law comes as the state is appealing a ruling that blocked key components of a second, more controversial Arizona immigration enforcement law. Thursday’s decision applies only to business licenses and does not signal how the high court might rule if the other law comes before it.

Related articles

• AP Enterprise: States’ immigration efforts fizzle (sfgate.com)

Advertisements