Echoing CAC Brief, Constitution’s Text, History and Structure Key Issues In Argument

Washington, DC – After attending today’s arguments at the Supreme Court over the constitutionality of Arizona’s SB 1070 anti-immigration law, Constitutional Accountability Center released the following statement.

CAC President Doug Kendall said, “Solicitor General Verilli effectively explained why SB 1070 threatens the federal government’s foreign policy and immigration authority, and why the law conflicts with the Founders’ design. The Constitution demands ‘uniform’ federal rules on naturalization and immigration, and Arizona’s law fundamentally disrupts this uniformity.”

CAC Chief Counsel Elizabeth Wydra said, “SB 1070 is a single-minded, aggressive ‘attrition through enforcement’ policy that directly conflicts with the Constitution’s delegation of immigration authority to the federal government.  The nation’s Founders unmistakably gave the national government the power to speak for the United States on immigration matters and foreign affairs,” Wydra continued, “and it appeared that a majority of the justices had problems with at least some provisions of the Arizona law.  Hopefully, the justices will recognize that all of the challenged provisions should fail for the same reason: Arizona does not have the right to put in place its own ‘attrition through enforcement’ immigration policy.”

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Resources:

*  CAC’s “friend of the court” brief in Arizona v. United States:  http://theusconstitution.org/cases/briefs/arizona-v-us-us-v-arizona/arizona-v-us

*  Elizabeth Wydra, Huffington Post (front page), “Arizona’s ‘Show Me Your Papers’ Law Gets Its Day in Court — and Congress,” April 24, 2012:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-b-wydra/arizonas-show-me-your-pap_b_1449460.html

*  Elizabeth Wydra, New York Times, “The Constitution Settles It,” April 22, 2012: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/22/how-states-should-approach-immigration/the-constitution-limits-states-immigration-policy

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Constitutional Accountability Center (www.theusconstitution.org) is a think tank, public interest law firm, and action center dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of the Constitution’s text and history.