68 U. S. House Democrats invoked the name of slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin on Tuesday as they filed a challenge to Arizona's SB 107 - The friend-of-the-court brief argues that SB 1070 is unconstitutional because it pre-empts federal authority. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, led the push for the brief

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Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, said a law like SB 1070 will give police "the right to be judge and jury," which could have disastrous results "in a nation where we all are different."

''In one case, a hoodie equals suspicion," she said. "In another case, it is a tanness of your skin, or the coloration of your skin, or maybe the configuration of your face."

Arizona Central
U. S. House Democrats file SB 1070 challenge with Supreme Court
by Dustin Volz
March 27, 2012
Cronkite News Service


U. S. House Democrats file SB 1070 challenge with Supreme Court


Some excerpts :

WASHINGTON -- House Democrats invoked the name of slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin on Tuesday as they filed a challenge to Arizona's SB 1070, the immigration law to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court next month.

The friend-of-the-court brief from 68 Democrats - including both from Arizona - argues that SB 1070 is unconstitutional because it pre-empts federal authority. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, led the push for the brief.

But much of the discussion at Tuesday's news conference centered on Martin, the unarmed Black teen killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer who said he was acting in self-defense when he shot the hoodie-wearing youth last month.

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The debate moves to the Supreme Court on April 25, when the justices will be asked to decide if SB 1070 is an intrusion on federal authority, as the Justice Department claims.

House Democrats said in their brief that it is. They call on the high court to affirm the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision blocking the 2010 law "because the Framers vested authority in Congress, not the several states, to determine how federal immigration law is enforced."

''Arizona should not be able to usurp Congress's authority through SB 1070," the brief said.

At the news conference releasing the brief, Grijalva said SB 1070 would promote an unconstitutional system of "patchwork immigration laws from one state to another" instead of consistent enforcement throughout the country.

''Whether or not it (immigration reform) has been neglected ... by Congress still doesn't give the authority to the state of Arizona, to the state of Alabama, to the state of South Carolina, to set their own policy," Grijalva said. "This is a federal responsibility."

Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Phoenix, said the issue in the SB 1070 challenge "is to uphold the supremacy clause of the Constitution."

Pastor and Grijalva were joined by a handful of other lawmakers, many of whom said SB 1070 will open doors to racial profiling in Arizona.

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Grijalva said :

''When you begin to profile people based on how they look, and you begin to profile people based on that criteria only, the consequences are not ever good," he said.

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