Entity

So it's official: Obama's Justice Department will announce this week that it's suing Arizona to overturn the onerous immigration law.

In case you doubt that this will revive the national yelling match over immigration, the two Republican Senators from Arizona, John McCain and Jon Kyl, are already out with a statement bashing the decision as proof that the Obama administration is weak on enforcement:

"The American people must wonder whether the Obama Administration is really committed to securing the border when it sues a state that is simply trying to protect its people by enforcing immigration law.

"Attorney General Holder speaks of the 'federal government's responsibility' to enforce immigration laws; but what are the people of Arizona left to do when the federal government fails in its responsibility?

"The Obama Administration has not done everything it can do to protect the people of Arizona from the violence and crime illegal immigration brings to our state. Until it does, the federal government should not be suing Arizona on the grounds that immigration enforcement is solely a federal responsibility."

It will be interesting to see how directly Obama takes ownership of the lawsuit, given that it's being initiated by his Justice Department, which in theory makes such decisions independently.

The White House is reported to be worried that Obama's dip in popularity among Latinos will adversely impact the 2010 and 2012 elections. Harry Reid also needs big Latino support to win reelection. Hence Obama's recent high-profile speech on immigration reform. In that speech, Obama didn't lay out any specific policies or timelines, leading many to speculate that immigration reform may not move this year.

But a major, high-profile lawsuit like this one could do nearly as much as a legislative push on the issue to excite Latino and other Dem base voters, at least in the short term. It could restart the national argument over immigration, push the issue to the forefront again, and demonstrate the Obama administration's willingness to use the power of the Federal government to defend Latinos' civil rights. Gonna get hot.

UPDATE, 2:35 p.m.: It's officially official: Here's the lawsuit [pdf] that Obama's Justice Department has now filed against Arizona.


Source

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Basically, the US gov't is saying they have supremacy over states and that Az law interferes with the US gov't ability to regulate immigration matters.

You can’t help but wonder what the cost to taxpayers of this lawsuit will be, and how much fencing and additional border security the money could have paid for. Then again, if the Obama administration gave a damn about border security, drug smuggling and illegal aliens in general (known to the DNC as “potential voters”), they wouldn’t be filing the lawsuit in the first place.



Ironically, after all the spewing about civil rights violations etc.. there is absolutely NOTHING mentioned along those lines in the suit...

hmmm

__________________
"The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise their power from behind the scenes."
-- Justice Felix Frankfurter, U.S. Supreme Court

"Fifty men have run America, and thats a high figure."
-- Joseph Kennedy, father of JFK, in the July 26th, l936 issue of The New York Times.[/CENTER]

The Rev

Our government really needs to revisit the idea of "enforceablilty". There's just too much shit we try to control that we can't, because it's supposedly good politics. Immigration, Drugs, The Internet, etc. They're all just a big money hole with nothing to show for all the effort and expense.



The Rev

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Entity

Agreed.

And given the fact that the only thing "broken" about our immigration policy is that it's not being enforced, the whole idea of "reform" is just another money pit.

Of course, reform is just another word for amnesty (in this case) and we see how far that idea went in correcting illegal immigration when Reagan did it.

As for reform in general, we see how well Health Care reform went.
Nothing that was wrong with the system was addressed. Just more money thrown at the problem as a fix.

__________________
"The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise their power from behind the scenes."
-- Justice Felix Frankfurter, U.S. Supreme Court

"Fifty men have run America, and thats a high figure."
-- Joseph Kennedy, father of JFK, in the July 26th, l936 issue of The New York Times.[/CENTER]

HTAM

Part of the ground that this challenge stands on is the fact that 'States have no power to pass immigration laws because it’s an attribute of foreign affairs. Just as states can’t have their own foreign policies or enter into treaties, they can’t have their own immigration laws either'
-Karl M. Manheim
Professor of Law, Loyola

I'm a little surprised that this went forward, because it's already been teed up by the ACLU.

Entity

You're talking about the Supremacy Clause.

But, the Supreme Court has ruled that:

"A state statute is void to the extent that it actually conflicts with a valid Federal statute."

In effect, this means that a State law will be found to violate the supremacy clause when either of the following two conditions (or both) exist:

1. Compliance with both the Federal and State laws is impossible, or
2. "...state law stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress..."

Kris Kobach, a Yale Law School graduate, teaches constitutional and immigration law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, helped to draft it is preparing to defend it.


His main crux is that it follows already established Federal Law.
Moreover, the state doesn't adjudicate guilt, they turn them over to the gov't for proper handling.


Politics, brother. Pure and simple.
The Latino vote is at stake, the Latino's are pissed about being lied to (not reforming immigration as he promised them) and elections are just around the corner.

Why he's more concerned about Latino votes (influenced by Mexican agenda pushing entities) than Americans who support the Az law is beyond me.

__________________
"The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise their power from behind the scenes."
-- Justice Felix Frankfurter, U.S. Supreme Court

"Fifty men have run America, and thats a high figure."
-- Joseph Kennedy, father of JFK, in the July 26th, l936 issue of The New York Times.[/CENTER]

Dantastic

Uh entity, I think you just shot down a states right to have medical marijuana...

2. "...state law stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress..."

Id say an objective of congress is the abomination of all marijuana, medical or otherwise.

Entity

I don't make law.

I just c/p what I find.

__________________
"The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise their power from behind the scenes."
-- Justice Felix Frankfurter, U.S. Supreme Court

"Fifty men have run America, and thats a high figure."
-- Joseph Kennedy, father of JFK, in the July 26th, l936 issue of The New York Times.[/CENTER]

Entity

__________________
"The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise their power from behind the scenes."
-- Justice Felix Frankfurter, U.S. Supreme Court

"Fifty men have run America, and thats a high figure."
-- Joseph Kennedy, father of JFK, in the July 26th, l936 issue of The New York Times.[/CENTER]

HTAM

@Entity....I like that you are look into this like I am.

Read the petition, specifically page 9, line 35, pp 26, and also page 18 line 26, pp 47, and page 19, line 4, pp 48

Here is the link http://graphics8.nytimes.com/package...-AZLAWSUIT.pdf

The Supremacy Clause is 1 of 3 actions the lawsuits names. Preemption of Federal Law, and Violation of the Commerce Clause, found of pages 23 and 24 are also attached.

My money is on Arizona losing this one.

HTAM

No.

Alex Kozinski, Circuit Judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, wrote in his Oct. 29, 2002 concurring opinion in the case of Conant v. Walters:

"The federal government's policy [of targeting physicians for recommending marijuana as medicine] deliberately undermines the state by incapacitating the mechanism the state has chosen for separating what is legal from what is illegal under state law."

Dantastic

Thanks for clearing that up, that one had me stumped as to what the wording and deal was.

Nice to know we have some resident law-heads on the hooks.

The Rev

The new rolleyes looks more like a smiley looking up at the quote with admiration and respect.

The old one was better. It had that certain dismissive je ne sais quoi that really makes a pwnage smilie.



The Rev

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Rubix

old one?

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The Rev

When the board was upgraded, ;rolleyes; changed to and the old ;rolleyes; changed to ;re;



The Rev

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verklingen

arizona has also been preparing legislation that would deny the children of illegals in their state an official birth certificate.

reactionary measures aren't my cup of tea

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“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

hijabihippie

So, Latinos are not Americans???

Tell that to Richard Rodruigez, author of Hunger Of Memory: The Education Of Richard Rodruigez: An Autobiography, along with Ray Suarez and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Linda Sotomajor.