Courtesy of CNN.COM
A federal judge has granted an injunction blocking enforcement of parts of a controversial immigration law in Arizona that is scheduled to go into effect Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton ruled the federal government “is likely to succeed” in its challenge of the legality of one of the most controversial sections of the Arizona law. That provision required police to “make a reasonable attempt to determine the immigration status of a person stopped, detained or arrested” if the officer has a reasonable suspicion that the person is in the United States illegally.
Jeffrey Toobin, CNN’s senior legal analyst, spoke with T.J. Holmes on “CNN Newsroom” and offered his immediate reaction to the ruling and what it could mean for Arizona and other states.
What exactly did the judge rule?
The judge ruled that certain provisions are unconstitutional, but parts of the law she approved. The most controversial of which is the duty forced on law enforcement officers to determine if immigrants are people reasonably suspected of being illegal are in fact illegal. That has been struck down temporarily.
The judge said this – the requirement of law enforcement officials to essentially make all possibly illegal immigrants show their papers – is a violation of the separation of powers, a violation of federal sovereignty and federal control of immigration matters.
That argument was the one maintained by the Obama administration. Many civil rights groups argued it was simply discriminatory towards Hispanics.
The judge struck down the law on the ground that it was a violation of the federal control of immigration matters. That’s why the controversial provision at least for the time being will not go into effect.
So what happens now?
Some of it will have to do with the legal strategy followed by the state of Arizona here. The state of Arizona could ask the judge to revisit the issue after more fact-finding. They could also go directly to the Court of Appeals – which is the next up in the federal court structure.
I think this is a case very much destined for United States Supreme Court. It is the kind of big issue relating to the responsibilities of state versus federal government on a very important matter, so it’s likely, given how much attention this law received that other states will be passing similar laws. I think the Supreme Court will get involved probably next year. The issue that’s up in the air is will the law be in effect while the appeals process goes forward? At the moment the answer is no – at least this one provision. But certainly an appeals process will begin. If not immediately, then soon