Arizona to Appeal SB 1070 Ruling; Federal Judge Susan Bolton Strikes Down State's Immigration Law

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has vowed to appeal the federal court ruling striking down the Grand Canyon's State's illegal immigration law, SB 1070, The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act. Federal District Court Judge Susan Bolton voided most of the provisions of the law on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. Federal law preempts state law, and the U.S. Supreme Court forbids states from having their own immigration systems.

In a statement issued after the ruling, Governor Brewer -- who signed SB 1070 into law on April 23, 2010 -- vowed that she would fight the case all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

"This fight is far from over," Governor Brewer's statement read. "In fact, it is just the beginning, and at the end of what is certain to be a long legal struggle, Arizona will prevail in its right to protect our citizens."

The Judge: Susan Bolton

Judge Susan Bolton, who serves on United States District Court for the District of Arizona, was appointed by former President Bill Clinton. The 59-year-old judge has 21 years experience on the bench. She has been on the Court since the year 2000. Prior to that, she served from 1989 to 2000 as a Superior Court Judge in the Arizona Superior Court for Maricopa County.

Her elevation to the federal bench was made on the recommendation of U.S. Senator John Kyl, Republican of Arizona.

During the arguments of the case, she did express sympathy for some of the technical aspects of the bill, but in the end, it did not pass constitutional muster. She stayed the enforcement of the law, which was due to go into effect today, August 29th, the day of her ruling.

The Law: SB 1070

Under Arizona's SB 1070, police making stops wold be able to check a detainee's immigration status if they had reason to suspect they were in the country illegally. The law also makes it illegal for a non-American citizens in Arizona to lack the proper immigration documents and mandated that everyone carry proof of their residency status.

The law essentially tasks community law enforcement agencies in Arizona with enforcing federal immigration law, which opened it up to the legal challenge from the federal government on the basis that the primacy of federal law makes this state law unconstitutional.

SB 1070 controversially forbids local governments and law enforcement agencies from enacting a policy that would have mandated that police ignore federal immigration law. If such a policy is enacted, citizens would be allowed to sue the entity that passed it.

In addition to the arguments about federal law over riding state law, opponents of SB 1070 pointed out that enforcement of the law would lead to racial profiling. Determining probable cause as to a detainee's immigration status likely would turn on issues of race, color and language. Such discrimination would be illegal.

The Ruling

Judge Bolton, in a 36-page ruling, forbade Arizona police from making determinations of the immigration status of detainees whom they suspect are illegal immigrants. She struck down the provision of the law that makes it a crime not to possess immigration documentation.

Justifying her decision, she agreed with the federal government's contention that the Arizona law would have undermined the federal enforcement of immigration laws.

Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler, who argued the federal government's lawsuit against Arizona, said that federal law preempts state law in the area of immigration. He argued that it was the intent of the Framers of the Constitution that the federal government have suzerainty in the area of immigration so that an individual state could not provoke an international incident. He pointed out that passage of the law already has alienated the Mexican government, showing that the Framers' fears were justified.

Bolton also struck down the law's mandate that everyone in Arizona carry proof of their residency status. She also voided SB 1070's criminalization of job seeking by illegal aliens.

Arizona argued that the federal government has failed to enforce immigration law, creating severe problems in Arizona from drug smugglers and human traffickers. Kneedler argued that if the Arizona authorities made extensive use of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), it wold overburden ICE. Judge Bolton was not sympathetic to that argument and cited it in her decision.

Bolton's voided the part of Arizona SB 1070 requiring police to check the immigration status of detainees with the federal government before they are released from jail was based on the fact that the law, as written, could be applied to people arrested for nonviolent misdemeanors that typically don't earn the arrested party time in jail.

SB 1070 also permitted the police to arrest anyone who has committed a crime that would mandate their deportation from the country. Determinations of deportation status, being highly complex , typically are left up to federal immigration authorities. Arizona, thus, was trying to preempt the federal government in a field that clearly, under the constitution, belonged to it and not the Grand Canyon State.