http://www.mcclatchydc.com/257/story/78204.html
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.
