The Arizona law on immigration

Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled on Arizona v. United States, involving Arizona's laws on illegal immigration. And its ruling was split in a way that both sides seem to be spinning to their advantage. I read a post by Marc L. Miller and Gabriel J. Chin called “S.B.1070 rides off into the sunset,” which discussed the decision in the following terms: “At its core, S.B. 1070 is a use of the state police power and state criminal law to enforce and punish federal immigration violators; at its core this is what a majority of the Supreme Court rejected.” Yet, on the same site, Jay Sekulow wrote a post that said: “The Supreme Court’s decision in Arizona v. United States represents an important victory for Arizona and proponents of the States’ authority to protect their borders and citizens when the federal government fails to do so.” Were the two discussing the same decision?

I think, clearly, Arizona failed to get all it sought, but got enough that one can say that “half a loaf is better than none.” Many parts of the law were not challenged at all; the Court's refusal to invalidate the immigration status check provision means that illegal immigrants cannot simply try to get by under the radar. If even a routine traffic stop might mean that they are going to sit in jail awaiting a ruling from ICE, they may find things a bit hotter. But the fact that some other provisions were invalidated (especially the one that illegal immigrants could not work legally in Arizona) does mean Arizona failed to get rid of at least some of the problems that it saw.

The question, “is this half a loaf?” has not fully been answered, though — the effects of this decision will not be ascertainable until the law has been allowed to take effect as fully as the Court permitted. There will still be people charging “racial profiling” and this may lead to further challenges to the law. What really needs to be done is for the Federal government to enforce its own laws.

An important month

Tomorrow is the first of June. A June that will be one of the most important months, outside of election-year Novembers, in U. S. political history.

Next Tuesday, of course, will be an election, though only in the State of Wisconsin. But this election will show whether ordinary people can take politics away from Big Labor. Governor Scott Walker has tried to get his state's finances in order, and his method has been to take some of the power that public employee unions have exercised in the State away. This has gotten him the unions' deep enmity, of course, so he is forced to fight a recall election — an extreme rarity in this country. Only two Governors have actually been removed by recall in the history of the United States. (A third was put up for recall, but impeached and removed by that process before a recall election could be held.) But it looks as though he will win. Polls show a majority of Wisconsinites will vote to keep Gov. Walker. They are not going to be puppets of Big Labor.

The other extremely important occurrences that will happen this month will be Supreme Court rulings. Both the Arizona illegal immigration law and “Obamacare” are expected to be the subjects of Court rulings this coming month. Both can have a serious impact on what the powers of the Federal government are considered to be. There is a good chance that both rulings will go against Pres. Obama, which will be important reins on the unfettered Federal domination of power that he seeks. A Mayor of Chicago can override the will of his city's people, and Pres. Obama has tried to do the same on a national level. But he will, hopefully, be shown that there are constitutional limits on his power.

The last big controversial Supreme Court case of the year

This week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on Arizona v. United States, dealing with the State of Arizona's law to deal with illegal immigrants in the State. The Obama administration says that Arizona had no right to pass such a law, because the Federal government has primary responsibility over immigration policy. Arizona, however, maintains that everything it has legislated is in conformity with Federal law, that it is an attempt to harmonize State law with Federal immigration law, and it is attempting to deal with Federal laxity in enforcing its own laws.

Once more, as with “Obamacare,” the Court will hear arguments and then leave us in the dark as the Justices make their decision, which will not be announced for months. It is a frustration that the Court's way of doing things is so slow, but I suppose this ensures that the process is deliberative rather than political. But I find it hard to wait.