Obama Loses Big in the Decision on the Arizona Immigration Law

The Supreme Court issued its decision on the Arizona immigration law this morning. The Court unanimously overturned the lower court decisions that stopped enforcement of the immigration check of people stopped by the police. In other words, Arizona policemen will be able to ask folks who are stopped for other reasons (from traffic tickets to murder arrests) to provide identification to verify their immigration status. At the same time, the decision of the lower courts that enjoined enforcement of other portions of the law were affirmed by a vote of 5 to 3. These other provisions made it a state crime for an unauthorized alien (1)to fail to comply with federal alien registration statutes, or (2) to seek or perform employment in Arizona. They also allowed Arizona cops to arrest someone if the cops suspected that the person is subject to deportation. The Court held that the federal system for dealing with alien registration, employment by aliens and deportation were exclusive and that they preempted the state statutes.

What is so extraordinary about the decision on the heart of the law is that it is unanimous. Remember when Arizon first passed the statute? President Obama told a crowd that someone could be going out to get an ice cream cone with his or her kids only to be stopped by the police for looking Hispanic. Of course, Obama was completely misrepresenting the actual law, but that did not stop him. Obama played to the hysterical view that the Arizona law was just an anti-Hispanic law that would give the police carte blanche. Well now a unanimous Supreme Court has said that it just is not so. Even Obama's appointee to the Court, Sonia Sotomayor, the so-called "wise Latina", rule that the law could stand.

If this had been a close vote, I am sure we would have heard outrage from the Obamacrats about how the Court was supporting discrimination against Hispanics. With the Court voting unanimously (including Sotomayor) in upholding the law, even the Obamacrats will not be able to spin this one away.