Thread: AZ Employment Law Challenges---Back to Court on Tuesday

Judge critical of delay in revamping challenge to sanctions law
Associated Press

Dec. 13, 2007 05:24 PM

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 14 county attorneys as defendants because the law gives those officials will enforce the law.

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€

Business interests trying to at least temporarily block implementation of Arizona's new employer sanctions law

I think it's time to start throwing up some pickets at these outfits until they straighten up?

There are folks who are out pickiting a few of the businesses that they are known to own and I was at the first one and got a few pictures of the 25 that were trying to get people to go to Burger King instead of McDonald's for this one man own's 15 McDonald's around Phoenix.

Mac Macgruder is an idiot-----and I hope that if this law is stalled-----his McDonald's are the first to have some ICE raids.

I called the courthouse in Phoenix, and got the email address of Judge Wake----the judge who will be hearing the case on Tuesday challenging the employer laws that are supposed to go into effect on January 1.

I BEGGED them to give me an email address that I could use to send information----and they did!!!

I sent the following email:

Judge Wake or To Whom It May Concern:

Due to the fact that you will be addressing another lawsuit challenging the Arizona Employer laws due to go into effect on January 1, 2008..........I thought that you would be interested in reading about recent court decisions in Oklahoma made on the same types of legal challenges.

On November 1, the state of Oklahoma passed HB-1804-----which also "REQUIRES" employers to ensure that they are hiring LEGAL employees (not illegals) and denies illegals access to state benefits.

These laws have been challenged 4 times by the illegals, illegal support groups, and employers-----each time the court ruled in favor of HB-1804.

December 13, 2007---was the most recent court challenge to these laws. In the following articles, you can see how Judge James Payne----of Tulsa, Oklahoma----ruled in regard to these court challenges.

Please take this recent ruling from Oklahoma into consideration, when making your decision regarding Arizona's employer laws which are due to go into effect on January 1, 2008.

http://newsok.com/article/3180616/1197617763

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article. ... USDis24770

http://www.kjrh.com/content/news/breaki ... dea68bbd65

Employer- sanctions foes turn to appeals court

By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.15.2007

"PHOENIX — Unwilling to bet on the outcome of their new lawsuit, business groups trying to void Arizona's employer sanctions law want a federal appeals court to overturn the dismissal of their case.

Attorney David Selden took the first steps Friday to appeal the week-old ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Neil Wake throwing out the case because they sued the wrong defendants.

The judge also said they provided no evidence anyone would be harmed if the main part of the statute — letting a judge suspend or revoke the license of firms that hire undocumented workers — takes effect.

But the appeal does more than set up a parallel process for attacking the law. It gives the businesses two additional chances to get a restraining order barring the state from enforcing the law as scheduled on Jan. 1.

First, by filing a notice of appeal, Selden can argue to Wake that it would be unfair to subject companies to the requirements of the law and the potential loss of their state licenses until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gets a chance to review the trial judge's ruling. That could take months.

If Wake refuses, Selden then can ask the appellate judges to issue their own restraining order.

The legal maneuvers come five days after Selden filed a second lawsuit challenging the law. The new lawsuit seeks its own restraining order against enforcement until the new complaint can be heard.

Wake has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday on that request. But the judge indicated Thursday he might not grant the stay, saying there would have been no reason for a new lawsuit, and no pressing Jan. 1 deadline, had challengers properly prepared the first lawsuit.

In throwing out the case, Wake pointed out he was being asked to bar the prosecution of anyone for knowingly hiring undocumented workers.

Businesses also want an order ensuring they can't be forced to check the legal status of new employees through the government's E-Verify program.

But Wake said the people empowered to enforce the law are the 15 county attorneys, none of whom were named as defendants in the case. Instead, the challengers sued the Attorney General's Office.

Selden's new lawsuit does add the county attorneys. But he said he still believes there was nothing wrong with the original claim, saying the attorney general has a role in enforcing the law.

If the 9th Circuit agrees, that doesn't mean the businesses win and the law goes away. Instead, the appellate judges would send the original case back to Wake with direction to consider the actual merits of their claims.

Central to those claims is the argument that Congress does not allow states to determine who is in this country legally or to punish firms that hire undocumented workers. That's the conclusion reached in July by a federal judge in Pennsylvania who voided a city ordinance in Hazelton taking away city licenses of firms that hire those not here legally.

Wake, however, is not bound by that ruling. And he pointed out during a hearing on the case that the federal law does contain an exception: States may take the licenses of companies hiring undocumented workers.

But Selden said that exception only applies after a federal hearing officer concludes the person is in this country illegally.

The business groups are not the only ones who contend the state law is flawed.

Some groups that provide services to minorities are arguing the law should be overturned because of its potential for discrimination. Attorney Jonathan Weissglass said employers, fearing loss of their business licenses, may simply stop hiring all Hispanics, including those who are citizens or otherwise here legally.

A lawsuit by those groups also was thrown out by Wake for not naming the proper defendants. Weissglass and others have since filed their own new litigation."

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/related/216306.php