Arizona's Other Homegrown Immigration Law To Go Before The Supreme Court This Week

On Wednesday the Supreme Court of the United States will hear the opening arguments in an ongoing case between the United States Chamber Of Commerce and the State of Arizona over the Legal Arizona Workers Act.

The Legal Arizona Workers Act is an immigration employee sanctions law that imposes stiff fines and sanctions against business that hire undocumented workers. Naturally this has led businesses in Arizona to sue, the state to revoke the law.

In the wake of Arizona's other homegrown immigration law SB1070, and the fact that the current law before the Supreme Court was written by then Governor of Arizona, now Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano the outcome of this case will have national implications.

David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times has the full story here:

Obama's top courtroom lawyer will join the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in urging the Supreme Court to strike down an Arizona law that goes after employers who hire illegal workers. The administration also seeks to void a part of the state's law that tells employers they must check the federal government's E-Verify database to make sure their new hires are authorized to work in the United States.

What is at stake is not so much the outcome of whether the Legal Arizona Workers Act is constitutional, but rather whether states have the right to make their own immigration legislation. The outcome of this case could determine whether or not Arizona's other anti-immigrant legislation law SB1070 will be constitutional.
While also slamming the door on various other copy cat laws which are springing up all over the country.

The move sets the stage for a high court ruling on the most disputed issue in immigration law: Can states and cities enforce their own laws against illegal immigrants, or must they wait for federal authorities to act?

At the center of this storm is the Obama Administration which has intervened on states ability to pass immigration laws, while trying to navigate its own enforcement policies in the future:

The administration found itself in an awkward spot in part because the Legal Arizona Workers Act was signed into law in 2007 by then- Gov. Janet Napolitano. She said it would impose the "business death penalty" on employers caught a second time hiring illegal workers, and blamed "the flow of illegal immigration into our state … [on] the constant demand of some employers for cheap, undocumented labor."

Now, however, Napolitano is Obama's secretary of Homeland Security, which enforces the immigration laws and administers E-Verify, a voluntary electronic program that checks whether new hires are authorized to work in the United States. Federal agencies and federal contractors are required to use the program.

More on this as it develops.