FEDERAL Judge Halts AZ Immigration Bill

I'm not providing information, likely, that you haven't already heard on Wednesday. I will have, however, a different take at the end of the post.

First, the facts; from the Arizona Daily Star:

A federal judge this morning blocked several critical provisions of Arizona's new immigration law from taking effect, delivering a last-minute victory to opponents of the law that brought the state a flurry of mostly negative international attention.

The overall law will still take effect Thursday, but without the provisions that angered opponents. Sections barred from being enforced include:

• Requiring a police officer to make a reasonable attempt to check the immigration status of those they have stopped;
• Forbidding police from releasing anyone they have arrested until that person's immigration status is determined;
• Making it a violation of Arizona law for anyone not a citizen to fail to carry documentation;
• Creating a new state crime for trying to secure work while not a legal resident;
• Allowing police to make warrantless arrests if there is a belief the person has committed an offense that allows them to be removed from the United States.

"Requiring Arizona law enforcement officials and agencies to determine the immigration status of every person who is arrested burdens lawfully-present aliens because their liberty will be restricted while their status is checked," U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled.

Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, who crafted the legislation, vowed an immediate appeal.

"I'm disappointed Judge Bolton doesn't have more respect for the law, the damage to America" from illegal immigrants, he said. Pearce repeated his argument — the same one presented by John Bouma, the attorney for Gov. Jan Brewer — that everything in SB 1070 "is about enforcing existing law."

"I look at this as a bump in the road," said Brewer. "This is a temporary injunction saying that the feds don't have to do their job.''

The governor said she fully expects an appeal. Regardless, Brewer pointed out this is only an interim order, with the legality of SB 1070 to be determined after a full-blown trial.

And she said Bolton, while "well informed and very thoughtful,'' is wrong in concluding the law goes beyond the legal authority of the state.

This is a shoddy and embarrassing decision. Judge Bolton has essentially said that, because the federal side couldn't handle the results of the state law, that is sufficient to nullify the Arizona law. Another Executive branch power grab.

And this is the same federal government that refuses to sue so-called "sanctuary cities."

Trust me: the decision will be appealed, vigorously, all the way up to SCOTUS if need be.

But here's my take on the gross nullification of a STATE law by a FEDERAL judge on Wednesday: this decision is going to help radicalize people like myself and others.

This is indeed a galvanizing event. Perhaps the galvanizing event for November.

It can have no other outcome. The federal government in general and the current occupants in DC are not only factually and historically Tone Deaf, they have gravely mistaken and misread the general temperament and temperature of the country. They are playing to a very small minority of their philosophical Left.

This is judicial activism at its worst and it won't be tolerated. As John Roberts said in his statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2005:

Judges and justices are servants of the law, not the other way around. Judges are like umpires.

Umpires don't make the rules; they apply them.

The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules.But it is a limited role. Nobody ever went to a ball game to see the umpire.

Judges have to have the humility to recognize that they operate within a system of precedent, shaped by other judges equally striving to live up to the judicial oath.

I concur; judges aren't players, they're umpires. Judge Bolton envisions herself a player not unlike a Lebron James, to stand out in the national limelight.

Right now, at this point, Demorats have proven they cannot be trusted with any aspect of American life.

Is this not one point in a continuing series of decisions, actions and inactions which, bottom line, have served to essentially declare war on common sense and the American Taxpayer?

America: DC conspires against you.

Go ahead: prove me wrong.

BZ