The Supreme Court did not issue their ruling on the Affordable Care Act today. That decision will almost certainly be announced on Thursday as I am preparing to go on vacation. Doesn’t that figure? However, the Supreme Court did rule on S.B. 1070, the Arizona immigration law. It basically ruled in the Obama administration’s favor, although it did allow one part of the law to stand (at least, for now).
1. Police Checks. Section 2(B) of the law requires the police to check the immigration status of persons whom they detain before releasing them. It also allows the police to stop and detain anyone suspected of being an undocumented immigrant. The Court held that the lower courts were wrong to prevent this provision from going into effect while its lawfulness is being litigated. It was not sufficiently clear that the provision would be held preempted, the Court held. The Court took pains to point out that the law, on its face, prohibits stops based on race or national origin and provides that the stops must be conducted consistent with federal immigration and civil rights laws. However, it held open that the provision could eventually be invalidated after trial.
The immediate result is that Arizona can continue to harass and detain Latinos even if it can’t deport them unilaterally. Naturally, there are limits imposed by the plain language of the bill, but proving that the effect of this section is to create unlawful racial harassment remains to be proven in court.
While that is being litigated, other red states can pass their own Latino harassment laws, and some may do so. This is bad news for Mitt Romney, who upheld the Arizona law as a model for the country.
