Thread: Supreme Court seeks White House views on hiring illegals

Supreme Court seeks White House views on hiring illegals
By Michael Doyle
2 hrs 33 mins ago

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will enter the politically tricky immigration arena, courtesy of the Supreme Court .

On Monday, the court asked the administration for its views in a challenge to an Arizona law that punishes companies for hiring illegal aliens. Other states with large immigrant populations will watch the next steps closely, because their own laws and ballot measures could be on the line.

"This case involves a question of exceptional national importance: whether state legislatures and municipal governments may override Congress' judgment concerning United States immigration policy," attorney Carter Phillips wrote in a legal brief.

Phillips noted that "in the first three months of 2009 alone, over 1,000 immigration-related bills and resolutions were introduced, in all 50 states" and "at least 150 of these bills related specifically to employment." He called the result "a cacophony."

A famed Supreme Court litigator, Phillips represents the U.S. Chamber of Commerce . The business group is challenging the Arizona law as part of a coalition of corporate, labor and immigrant groups that range from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation .

The challenged law, written in 2006, allows private complaints to be filed against employers. Those found to have "knowingly or intentionally" hired illegal immigrants could have their Arizona state business licenses suspended or revoked.

The law "reflects rising frustration with the United States Congress' failure to

enact comprehensive immigration reform," the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a ruling that upheld the law.

In a closed-door conference Friday whose outcome was released Monday, the justices agreed to ask Obama's solicitor general, Elena Kagan , to submit a brief outlining the administration's views. The justices will review this brief before they decide whether to take up the case.

For the Obama administration, the legal challenge now dubbed Chamber of Commerce v. Candelaria poses some potentially thorny questions.

During last year's presidential campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama declared that the proliferation of state immigration laws "underscores the need for comprehensive immigration reform so local communities do not continue to take matters into their own hands.''

The Arizona governor who signed the state law was Janet Napolitano , who now serves the Obama administration as the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security .

Congress first imposed penalties for hiring illegal immigrants under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. The federal law explicitly pre-empts state action, save for regulations that cover business "licensing."

Twenty-one years later, the Arizona legislature approved the Legal Arizona Workers Act. The law also requires Arizona employers to participate in an electronic employee-verification program called E-Verify. In other states, E-Verify participation is strictly voluntary.

The law hasn't yet been enforced. The so-called "facial challenge" that the Supreme Court is considering asserts that there's no way the state law can be enforced without violating federal law.

Arizona officials had hoped to avoid the court challenge.

"Although no one disputes the general importance of immigration policy, that does not mean every dispute about a state or local measure regarding illegal immigrants merits this court's review," Arizona Solicitor General Mary R. O'Grady said in a legal brief.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20091 ... /3347112_1

Quote:
"On Monday, the court asked the administration for its views in a challenge to an Arizona law that punishes companies for hiring illegal aliens."

It bodes badly that the Supreme Court would ask the Executive Branch its "views" on a legal issue, especially this one. It can be assumed that A.G. Holder will do everything he can to portray U.S. immigration law enforcement as strictly a federal matter.

Originally Posted by Texas2step

Quote:
"On Monday, the court asked the administration for its views in a challenge to an Arizona law that punishes companies for hiring illegal aliens."

It bodes badly that the Supreme Court would ask the Executive Branch its "views" on a legal issue at all, especially this one. It can be assumed that A.G. Holder will do everything he can to portray U.S. immigration law enforcement as strictly a federal matter.

Since when does the President or any of the other Jokers in the whitehouse, sit on the Supreme Court? You can tell they are bought and sold. It happened from the Birth Certificate issue when The administration had the Supreme Court and other Judges throw out all the cases!

Who cares what their "views" are....ENFORCE THE IMMIGRATION LAWS ALREADY ON THE BOOKS!

Too bad they don't give a crap about what 80% of the population thinks!!!

This is not good, they should not even be considering this case ....we happen to have 3 seperate parts of government for a reason. Even the 9th circut argreed with AZ....the ninth circut!

Why all of a sudden do the 3 seperate parts of government no longer know or understand their part in the government according to the constitution ?

Obama changing the laws to suit himself, no oversight of the WH by congress and the Justice dept asking Obama for advice, give us a break!

What a mess!

The US Chamber of Commerce were the group most responsible for the failure of enforcement of our 1986 laws.

The law "reflects rising frustration with the United States Congress' failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform," the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a ruling that upheld the law.

This is certainly a strange way of wording it but typical of the ninith.

Enforce our immigration laws

With thirty million unemployed Americans this shouldn't even be an issue. No one in that mob, union, Mexican drug cartel and Mexican government owned and controlled Congress and White (Jihad) House gives a horse's ass about struggling and suffering Americans. It is all about cheap labor for their union and corporate masters and illegal alien votes to keep those corrupt scumbags in power. I heard that reports from New Jersey indicate SEIU and ACORN allegedly have been handing out absentee ballots to illegal aliens and hospitalized people. That corrupt mob owned p.o.s. Corzine eliminated the requirment to certify absentee ballots to eliminate fraud and as a result there is an explosion of absentee ballot voting.

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http://www.alipac.us/article-4651--0-0.html

The Supreme Court can ask all the questions they want, they cannot change the immigration laws passed by Congress. And the 1996 Immigration laws explicitly says that states have a right to enforce immigration laws. They are trying real hard to make immigration enforcement totally a federal issue, but to do that it has to go back to Congress.