REUTERS / Joshua Lott
Legal experts are saying that precedent may be on the side of the Justice Department when it comes to its lawsuit against Arizona over its new immigration law.
Looking at old law principles that the federal government controls immigration and that states cannot tamper with policy that the feds hold jurisdiction over, they believe the government will have the advantage in the case.
“It’s one thing for MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) or the ACLU to say this [Arizona law] interferes with federal policy. It is quite a different thing when the federal government goes to court and says it,” Jack Chin, a University of Arizona law professor told the Los Angeles Times. “The clear rule has been that states do not have the power to regulate immigration.”
Arizona holds that its law, which is set to go into effect July 29 does not violate any federal statutes because it only authorizes a law enforcement officer to question a person when there is “reasonable suspicion” that they might be an illegal immigrant.
But there is warning that the Supreme Court has never ruled in such direct manner in a state-federal case on immigration.
“This is an unsettled area of constitutional jurisprudence,” said Temple University law professor Peter Spiro, adding that Supreme Court justices “may be willing to cut (states) some slack in the face of Washington’s now persistent failure to deal with immigration reform.”