Supreme Court: Arizona CAN shut down businesses for hiring illegal immigrants - even if Obama disagrees

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 09:03 EST, 7 November 2011

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The Supreme Court upheld an Arizona law Thursday that allows the state to shut down businesses that hire illegal immigrants, rejecting arguments that states have no role in immigration matters.

The court rejected arguments by business and civil rights groups and by the Obama administration that the Arizona law conflicted with federal immigration law and must be struck down.

By a 5-3 vote, the court said that federal immigration law gives states the authority to suspend or revoke a business’ license for hiring unauthorised workers.

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Last May: demonstrators protested in Arizona. Today the Supreme Court upholds a law that lets the state shut down a business for hiring illegal workers

Immigrant hub: U.S. Border Patrol rides the line dividing Nogales, Mexico (left) and Nogales, Ariz. (right)

Immigrant hub: U.S. Border Patrol rides the fine line that divides Nogales, Mexico (left) and Nogales, Ariz. (right)

The ruling cheered supporters of tougher immigration laws who said it would encourage states to take new steps, especially in the employment area.

The 2007 law backed by the court is different from the notorious SB1070 Arizona law adopted last year that required the police to check the immigration status of anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.

A federal judge and then a U.S. appeals court put the newer law's most controversial provisions on hold. Arizona has vowed to appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court.

Still, the ruling placed the court's five Republican appointed justices on the side of the state, and against the Chamber of Commerce, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Obama administration – all of whom had opposed the law.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, said Arizona's employer sanctions law ‘falls well within the confines of the authority Congress chose to leave to the states.’

About 11 million illegal immigrants are believed to be in the United States. Immigration has become a major issue in states such as Arizona on the border with Mexico.

Justice Stephen Breyer who disagreed with the Arizona law claimed it upsets a balance in federal law.

He claimed that on one hand you are dissuading employers from hiring illegal workers but on the other you’re trying to ensure people are not discriminated against because they may speak with an accent or look like they might be immigrants.

Racist law? The new law dissuades employers from hiring people with accents or who look like possible immigrants, Justice Breyer said

Racist law? The new law dissuades employers from hiring people with accents or who look like possible immigrants, according to Justice Breyer

Employers ‘will hesitate to hire those they fear will turn out to lack the right to work in the United States,’ he said.

The employer sanctions law has been only infrequently used. It was intended to diminish Arizona's role as the nation's hub for immigrant smuggling by requiring employers to verify the eligibility of new workers through a federal database.

The ACLU's Cecillia Wang said the Supreme Court decision was disappointing, but narrow. ‘The decision has nothing to do with SB1070 or any other state and local immigration laws,’ said Ms Wang, director of ACLU's immigrant rights project.