Foes of Az employer law hit setback

PHOENIX - Business interests trying to at least temporarily block implementation of Arizona’s new employer sanctions law have an uphill climb if a federal judge’s critical comments are any guide.

U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake said the challengers hurt their chances to get a temporary restraining order blocking the Jan. 1 implementation of the law by not naming county attorneys as defendants in the original suit filed against state officials.

Wake commented in an order Thursday in which he scheduled a hearing Tuesday to consider the challengers’ request for a temporary restraining order and to schedule consideration of their request for a longer-lasting preliminary injunction.

The law, enacted last June as a response to the influx of illegal immigrants into Arizona, requires the suspension or revocation of business licenses of employers who knowingly or intentionally employ illegal immigrants.

The challengers contend the law is an unconstitutional state infringement on the federal government’s exclusive power to regulate immigration and argue that the state’s businesses should not be burdened with having to comply with its mandates.

Wake on Friday dismissed the challengers’ original lawsuit, ruling that they should have named the state’s 15 county attorneys as defendants because the law requires them to enforce it.

The challengers then refiled their lawsuit to add the county attorneys as defendants.

Wake’s order cited appellate court rulings that said delays in seeking emergency court orders as a consequence of a party’s “tactical decisionsâ€