Thursday, May 26, 2011

Supreme Court Upholds Arizona Law



The Supreme Court upheld an Arizona law that punishes businesses that hire illegal aliens.  Justices aligned in a 5-3 decision with one abstaining.  This is a big victory for those who value their citizenship; not so much for those who don’t, or who just worship the dollar and nothing else.

States and cities will soon line up to adopt these measures:  if you hire an illegal, you will lose your license.  South Carolina and Mississippi have already passed similar laws.  Others will soon follow.  Congress is waiting to introduce a bill that will make it mandatory for all to verify the status of their employees:

The law upheld Thursday also requires Arizona employers to use a federal program called E-Verify to check the immigration status of potential workers. Roberts called this state requirement "entirely consistent" with federal law.


Nationwide, more than 215,000 employers have signed up for the optional E-Verify system. Other states now can follow Arizona's lead to make its use mandatory; South Carolina and Mississippi already have done so. In Congress, some lawmakers soon will introduce legislation that would make E-Verify mandatory everywhere.


"American jobs should be preserved for American workers," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and the author of a pending E-Verify bill.



This ruling could have other possibilities, such as prohibiting the Federal Government from overzealous regulations in the name of interstate commerce:

"Arizona's licensing law falls well within the confines of the authority Congress chose to leave to the states," Roberts wrote, adding that "regulating in-state businesses through licensing laws has never been considered ... an area of dominant federal concern."

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