Arizona Ruling, Pressure on Obama

29 July 2010 |permalink | email article

A ruling by a federal judge in Arizona on Wednesday basically vindicated the Obama administration’s high-stakes gamble to challenge the state’s tough immigration law and to assert the primary authority of the federal government over the Grand Canyon State and others in immigration matters.

The ruling by Judge Susan R. Bolton, in a lawsuit against Arizona by the Justice Department, blocked key provision sin the law from taking effect while she finishes hearing the case. In previewing her opinions Bolton appeared to indicate that the federal government was likely to win on the main points. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said the state would appeal the decision.

While not final Judge Bolton’s ruling is a warning to other states to halt, at least temporarily, an expanded move by other states to combat illegal immigration by making it a state crime to be an immigrant without legal documents and by imposing new requirements on state and local police officers to enforce immigration law. Arizona’s lawyers maintained that the statute was written to complement federal law, an argument the judge rejected.

Some critics said Judge Bolton decided too quickly. Peter Schuck, a Yale immigration law professor, told the New York Times “she rushed to judgment in a way that I can only assume reflects a lot of pressure from the federal government to get this case resolved quickly.”

The ruling puts President Obama under enormous pressure to show he can effectively enforce the border, move forward with an overhaul of immigration laws and prevent other states from not repeating Arizona’s federal challenge.

California election

Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman are playing musical chairs over the question of gubernatorial debates this fall. He wants 10 debates while she originally agreed to a single one just before the Nov. 2 election. Midas Meg has reconsidered. Now she wants just three, while the former governor is sticking to his original challenge. Either way, it’s a new gimmick to lobby political shots at each other.

Quotable

“Washington gave the Wall Street banks billions, and, in return, they stabbed us in the back, handing out a fortune in bonuses to the grifters who almost wrecked our economy. Washington gave the Pakistanis billions, and, in return, they stabbed us in the back, pledging to fight the militants even as they secretly help the militants. We keep getting played by people who are playing both sides.” – Maureen Dowd, in a powerful explainer about the quagmire in Afghanistan, noting Pakistan has been getting a billion a year for most of this decade, and has been pledged another $7.5 billion for the next five.

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