Law.com
9th Circuit: County Can't Use RICO to Sue Companies for Hiring Illegal Aliens
Tuesday March 25, 3:03 am ET
Dan Levine, The Recorder

An anti-illegal immigration lawsuit turned out to be much better as a metaphor than as a lawsuit.

When a former leader of Canyon County, Idaho, invoked civil RICO laws to sue four corporations for hiring illegal immigrants, the move made headlines all the way up to The New York Times: The newspaper viewed it as a prism to understand how the immigration issue split the Republican Party.

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But an ideologically balanced panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disposed of the complaint last week. Canyon County didn't have standing to argue that the companies' alleged hiring of illegal immigrants unfairly upped the cost of providing public services, Senior Judge A. Wallace Tashima ruled.

"We find it particularly inappropriate to label a governmental entity 'injured in its property' when it spends money on the provision of additional public services," Tashima wrote, "given that those services are based on legislative mandates and are intended to further the public interest."

Senior Judge William Canby Jr. and Judge Consuelo Callahan joined Tashima.

Canyon County brought in Howard Foster, a partner at Johnson & Bell in Chicago, to litigate the case. Foster's Web page trumpets his work filing class actions on behalf of "legally employed" hourly workers at food companies across the country. Foster declined to answer questions about the case. Canyon County spokeswoman Angie Sillonis said she could not comment "because we don't have a plan."

"The commission is still weighing their options and should have a decision within the week as to the next step," Sillonis said.

Though Robert Vasquez is no longer a commissioner, he is still vocal about illegal immigration.

"The recent defeat of President Bush's effort to pass amnesty for illegal aliens is a hopeful portent for those of us engaged in the Culture War," Vasquez wrote last summer in an Idaho Statesman op-ed. "After 17 years of standing alone against the tide, I can, and do, take credit for having helped defeat George W. Bush, Ted Kennedy and Larry Craig in the headlong rush to destroy America."

The 9th Circuit's ruling will have an impact beyond illegal immigration, said Marie Yeates, the Houston-based chief of Vinson & Elkins' appellate practice who represented defendant Swift Beef Co. The court goes much further than any other circuit in holding that municipalities can't sue over the cost of providing services for any reason.

"None of those suits pass muster under RICO," Yeates said.

San Jose, Calif.-based Richard Leasia, formerly a partner with Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner, defended Harris Moran Seed Co.; Juan Morillo, formerly of Sidley Austin, represented Sorrento Lactalis Inc.; and George Wood of Littler Mendelson defended Syngenta Seeds.

The case is Canyon County v. Sygenta Seeds Inc., 08 C.D.O.S. 3151.

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