Supreme Court overturns anti-Hazelton lower court ruling
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Supreme Court overturns anti-Hazelton lower court ruling -- another E-Verify victory
From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA
Date: Monday 6JUN2011 Noon EDT
SUPREME COURT SAYS COURT OF APPEALS WAS WRONG IN BLOCKING HAZELTON'S E-VERIFY ORDINANCE
MAYOR LOU BARLETTA'S ORDINANCE SPARKED A NATIONAL EFFORT OF LOCAL & STATES TO PASS OWN E-VERIFY LAWS
This Ruling Opens Way For A Lot More Pressure Against Illegal Foreign Workers -- 2 Weeks After Supreme Court Approved Arizona's E-Verify Law
The Associated Press has just reported that "two weeks after issuing a major ruling affirming a state's right to pass legislation cracking down on employers who knowingly hire illegal workers, the Supreme Court has voided a lower court ruling blocking a city ordinance that does the same and also targets landlords who willfully house illegals."
ACTION: Please go to your Action Board and send more faxes to your Members of Congress urging Congress to mandate E-Verify for all employers nationwide. https://www.numbersusa.com/hub?action=r ... 4574&lid=9
With this newest Supreme Court ruling, the pressure increases greatly on Congress to create a uniform national standard, since the coast is now clear for cities, counties and states across the nation to pass mandates on their own.
NumbersUSA members will remember the years of support that they have provided to then-Mayor Lou Barletta and the city of Hazelton, Pa., as they tried to reduce their illegal population by requiring local employers to use E-Verify.
At our May symposium for our strongest supporters, both Barletta and Hazelton's lawyer -- Kris Kobach -- spoke about what it was like to be nearly all alone in the federal courts system facing multitudes of lawyers from giant national groups opposing them.
Barletta (now the U.S. Representative from that area) and Kobach (now the Secretary of State of Kansas) talked about the signs of extreme prejudice shown by the federal judges that led to the circuit court and then the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals blocking Hazelton's law.
And they told our supporters that they remained confident that the Supreme Court would see that the little city of Hazelton knew the law better than those two lower federal courts.
This case is not over, though. The Supreme Court's action sent the case back to the Third Circuit with instructions to review the matter in light of the Supreme Court's ruling about the Arizona E-Verify law.
The Supreme Court ruling was 5-3 on Hazelton -- the same as on the Arizona case.
Kris Kobach had always argued that the Hazelton ordinance was written strictly to be in line with federal law.
Speaking to the court, representing the Immigration Reform Law Institute, Kobach said: "Hazleton's ordinances match the terms and classifications of federal immigration law and require officials to defer to federal determinations of aliens' immigration statuses. In drafting the ordinances, the city made every effort to avoid any conflict with federal immigration laws."
AP reported that that is the same argument Arizona's lawyers made when their case went before the court and is one that Chief Justice John Roberts and four of his colleagues agreed with.
"(Federal law) expressly reserves to the states the authority to impose sanctions on employers hiring unauthorized workers, through licensing and similar laws. In exercising that authority, Arizona has taken the route least likely to cause tension with federal law," Roberts wrote last month.
I hope every one of you will go to your NumbersUSA Action Board and send faxes to your Members of Congress to take advantage of the momentum created by this latest Supreme Court ruling.
Thanks,
-- ROY
Numbers USA
1601 N. Kent Street
Suite 1100
Arlington, VA 22209
received by e-mail from Numbers USA on Mon, Jun 6, 2011 12:48 pm.
