On Monday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction against the day labor section of SB1070. The law was enacted in 2010 and has been in the courts since then.
A U.S. District Court judge placed the injunction on the law in February 2012. The three member 9th Circuit panel upheld the injunction based on First Amendment right of free speech.
The State has not yet asked for an en banc hearing from the 9th Circuit, and Arizona Governor Brewer has not yet released a statement on the decision. Brewer’s spokesperson, Mathew Benson called the decision “disappointing.”
The court found that the portion pertaining today labor was not an effort by the State to maintain public safety, but an effort to curb illegal immigration.
The Supreme Court has ruled that Arizona has a right to require police to check identification. After tha ruling the ACLU issued a statement; “The ACLU along with a coalition of civil rights organizations, will continue to challenge the Arizona law on other constitutional grounds.”
Salvador Reza of Tonatierra, a Phoenix-based organization that held a decolonize rally and march in January, said: “We have always known that the criminalization of day labor is immoral, unjust, and a violation of human rights. Today, it should be very clear that the Constitution forbids such criminalization too.” Reza is an organizational plaintiff in the case.