Court backs block on Arizona law aimed at day laborers
Court backs block on Arizona law aimed at day laborers
By Alex Dobuzinskis | Reuters – 4 mins ago
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Reuters/Reuters - Workers labor at a romaine lettuce farm outside San Luis, Arizona November 9, 2010. REUTERS/Eric Thayer
(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court ruled on Monday on the side of day laborers seeking work in Arizona, upholding an injunction that bars the state from enforcing part of its immigration law that prohibits motorists from stopping traffic to pick up workers.
In the unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found the state law, by criminalizing certain interactions between drivers and day laborers, went too far in restricting commercial free speech rights.
The court's decision is another blow to a tough 2010 Arizona law that sought to clamp down on illegal immigrants. The U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down key provisions of that law in a case brought by the Obama administration on grounds that the law clashed with the federal government's power to enforce U.S. laws on immigration.
The case before the appeals court stemmed from a civil rights lawsuit filed by immigrant and union groups, with help from attorneys from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The sections of the law in question made it a crime for a motorist to solicit or hire a day laborer if the car blocks traffic, and also prohibited any day laborer from entering a car that is obstructing traffic.
While attorneys for Arizona argued the state's intention was to promote traffic safety, Ninth Circuit Judge Raymond Fisher wrote in his opinion that the state could take other measures to achieve the same end.
The provisions of the immigration law dealing with day laborers and motorists appear to be "motivated by a desire to eliminate the livelihoods of undocumented immigrants," Fisher wrote.
"Laws that limit commercial speech must not be more extensive than necessary to serve a substantial government interest," he added.
GOVERNOR WEIGHING OPTIONS
The appeals court ruling upheld a February 2012 decision by a district judge in Arizona who granted a preliminary injunction against the provision.
Arizona's Republican Governor Jan Brewer touted the state's 2010 law cracking down on illegal immigration as a necessary response to what she described as the federal government's failure to control the border with Mexico. The border state of Arizona has seen a large influx of illegal immigrants.
Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson said the governor is conferring with her legal team to decide whether to appeal. "The governor thinks this is an important tool to give law enforcement," Benson said.
Omar Jadwat, supervising attorney with the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, called the ruling "another nail in the coffin" Arizona's tough immigration law.
The June 2012 decision by the Supreme Court struck down much that law as unconstitutional, including provisions that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times and banned illegal immigrants from soliciting work in public places.
A section of the law that has so far survived court challenges requires police in the state to check the immigration status of people they stop and suspect are in the country illegally, even if officers have stopped a person for minor offenses such as jay-walking.
In 2011, the Ninth Circuit struck down an ordinance by the California city of Redondo Beach that barred day laborers from gathering curbside to seek work.
"It is fundamentally wrong to criminalize work, to criminalize people who are looking for work to feed their loved ones," said Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.
His group was a co-counsel on the civil rights case challenging the Arizona law on day laborers. A 2004 survey by the group and university researchers found the nation had about 120,000 day laborers.
http://news.yahoo.com/court-backs-block-arizona-law-aimed-day-laborers-210430668.html
Gov. Brewer loses appeal over Arizona's day-labor rules
By Associated Press
Originally published: Mar 4, 2013 - 12:53 pm
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PHOENIX -- An appeals court on Monday upheld a ruling that prevents police in Arizona from enforcing a little-known section of the state's 2010 immigration enforcement law that prohibited people from blocking traffic when they seek or offer day labor services on streets.
The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals marked a loss for Gov. Jan Brewer, who had asked the court to rescind a February 2012 decision by a judge who rejected Brewer's arguments that the day labor rules were needed for traffic safety.
Groups that challenged the law argued that the day labor rules unconstitutionally restrict the free speech rights of people who want to express their need for work.
The appeals court said U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton had correctly determined that the day labor rules don't meet a requirement that restrictions on commercial speech be no more extensive than necessary to serve the state's interest in promoting traffic safety.
In Arizona, it's legal to hire or be hired for day labor, and the state's day labor rules limit the ability of day laborers and employers to seek or offer a lawful service, the appeals court wrote. ``Arizona has also singled out day labor solicitation for a harsh penalty while leaving other types of solicitation speech that blocks traffic unburdened,'' the appeals panel wrote.
The appeals court pointed out that the law's introduction, which says the statute's purpose is make attrition through enforcement the state's immigration policy, says nothing about traffic safety.
The court also said the state's punishment for breaking the day labor rules is far out of line with punishments for similar traffic violations. For instance, a person who is found by a court to have recklessly interfered with traffic faces a 30-day sentence, while a violation of the day labor rules is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum 6-month jail sentence.
Dan Pochoda, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, one of the groups that challenged the day labor rules, said Arizona already has plenty of power to confront its traffic woes. ``There are already ordinances directed toward that problem, and there has been no showing that those are not adequate,'' Pochoda said.
Brewer spokesman Matt Benson said in a written statement that Monday's decision is a disappointment and that the governor will be talking with her lawyers about the state's next step in the case.
The ruling on Monday focused on only the law's day labor rules, which were among a handful of sections of the law that were allowed to take effect after a July 2010 decision.
The day labor restrictions weren't among the sections of law that the Supreme Court considered last year when it upheld the law's most contentious section that required police, while enforcing other laws, to question people's immigration status if they're believed to be in the country illegally. The nation's highest court struck down other sections of the law, such as a requirement that immigrants obtain or carry immigration registration papers.
It's unclear whether the day labor rules were enforced by police while they were in effect from July 2010 until the decision in February 2012.
Day labor organizers say they know of no arrests under the rules, though they added that day laborers are still arrested on trespassing and other charges that aren't in the immigration law. In the past, some of the biggest police agencies in Arizona have reported little- if any- use of provisions in the law.
Brewer's lawyers had argued that the restrictions are meant to confront safety concerns, distractions to drivers, harassment to passers-by, trespassing and damage to property. They said day laborers congregate on roadsides in large groups, flagging down vehicles and often swarming those that stop. They also said day laborers in Phoenix and its suburbs of Chandler, Mesa and Fountain Hills leave behind water bottles, food wrappers and other trash.
Groups that challenged the law say the state can't justify the statewide ban on work solicitation speech imposed by the rules. They contend that the state's arguments about traffic safety are a sham and that the real purpose of the day labor rules is to remove day laborers from public view.
Gov. Brewer loses appeal over Arizona's day-labor rules - Phoenix News - KTAR.com
