Alabama wants appeals court to reconsider school ruling in immigration law battle

By Brian Lawson, The Huntsville Times
September 10, 2012, 7:17 PM


Gov. Robert Bentley signs the Immigration Bill into law, Thursday, June 09, 2011, in the Old House Chamber at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery. Looking on, left to right, are: State Senator Scott Beason, Representative Kerry Rich and Representative Micky Hammon.

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Alabama is not backing down in defending its far-reaching immigration law and is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider a ruling that blocked several sections of the 2011 measure.

The state is asking for a rehearing by the same three-judge panel that ruled in August or before the full 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, to reconsider the injunction on requiring public schools to collect immigration data on new students. The state also wants the court to revisit the injunctions that barred Alabama from criminalizing harboring and transport of illegal immigrants and a measure that made contracts with illegal immigrants unenforceable.

The 2011 law generated by the new Republican majority in the Legislature prompted lawsuits by the U.S. Justice Department and a group of 36 plaintiffs led by the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama, which sought to block the law.

The state's filings this afternoon ask for a rehearing on those rulings. The 11th Circuit has 11 full-time judge seats.

The ruling followed oral arguments before the 11th Circuit panel in March and the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Arizona immigration law case in June that found that immigration law is largely the province of the federal government.

State officials said in August the measures the court upheld, including allowing police to conduct immigration status checks of suspected illegal immigrants and a ban on providing driver's and business licenses to illegal immigrants, kept the essence of the law intact.

But the state waded back into the fray today.

Gov. Robert Bentley said Alabama needs to be protected from federal government overreach.

"Federal courts should not restrain state governments in a way that is contrary to the U.S. Constitution," Bentley said. "We must protect the State of Alabama from the federal government interfering with our ability to enforce our laws. We owe it to the people of this state to defend the U.S. Constitution and the right of our Legislature to make constitutional policy choices."

Alabama wants the court to consider whether plaintiffs have standing to sue on the schools challenge and if data collection on illegal immigrants in public schools violates the Constitution.

The 11th Circuit panel found that the immigration data collection from students violated the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause.

"This hurdle will understandably deter this population from enrolling in and attending school because, as unlawfully present aliens, 'these children are subject to deportation,' and removal proceedings can be instituted upon the federal government being informed of their undocumented status," the panel wrote in the Aug. 20 ruling.

In today's filing Alabama argues a rehearing is warranted, saying the panel's ruling was flawed.

"The panel concluded that the law 'significantly interferes' with the exercise of a constitutional "right" to receive a free education, but it cited no actual evidence of interference," the filing argues, "and the chief Supreme Court precedent it cited expressly disclaims the existence of such a right.

"That flawed analysis cannot be the basis for striking down a state's good-faith effort to assess the costs of illegal immigration, and it is another reason for panel or en banc rehearing."

The 11th Circuit panel upheld the section of Alabama's law that directs police to check immigration status of people stopped for traffic violations or arrested and to detain them up to 48 hours to make immigration status checks.

Along with the schools injunction, the panel blocked the effort to make contracts with illegal immigrants unenforceable and barred criminalizing failure to carry alien registration documents. A lower court had blocked a section related to harboring and transporting illegal immigrants that had drawn the ire of some Alabama churches.

Mary Bauer, legal director of the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center, which is among the group's representing the 36 plaintiffs in their lawsuit, expressed disappointment that Alabama is continuing to stand behind an "unjust and hateful" law.

The 11th Circuit panel's ruling that the Alabama law violated the Constitution's equal protection clause was "clearly the correct ruling, and we are sure that the decision will stand," Bauer said.

While injunctions in the two lawsuits to block the law were upheld on Aug. 20, the federal government has 45 days from the date of the Aug. 20 ruling to challenge the panel's findings. Any reply by the Justice Department would be due in early October. But there was a 21-day deadline to request a rehearing on the plaintiffs lawsuit, a deadline that the 11th Circuit clerk's office said was today.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs submitted a filing Monday afternoon asking for more time to respond to the court's ruling. The filing asks the court to give it until Oct. 4 to submit its filing.

Alabama wants appeals court to reconsider school ruling in immigration law battle (updated) | al.com