WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to rule on Arizona's controversial law targeting illegal immigrants.
The justices said they will review a federal appeals court ruling that blocked several tough provisions in the Arizona law. One of those requires that police, while enforcing other laws, question a person's immigration status if officers suspect he is in the country illegally.
Arguments probably will take place in late April, which would give the court roughly two months to decide the case.
The immigration case stems from the administration's furious legal fight against a patchwork of state laws targeting illegal immigrants.
Arizona wants the justices to allow the state to begin enforcing measures that have been blocked by lower courts at the administration's request.
The state says that the federal government isn't doing enough to address illegal immigration and that border states are suffering disproportionately.
In urging the court to hear the immigration case, Arizona says the administration's contention that states "are powerless to use their own resources to enforce federal immigration standards without the express blessing of the federal executive goes to the heart of our nation's system of dual sovereignty and cooperative federalism."
Many other state and local governments have taken steps aimed at reducing the effects of illegal immigration, the state says.
But the administration argues that the various legal challenges making their way through the system provide a reason to wait and see how other courts rule.
In April, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a federal judge's ruling halting enforcement of several provisions of Arizona's S.B. 1070. Among the blocked provisions: requiring all immigrants to obtain or carry immigration registration papers; making it a state criminal offense for an illegal immigrant to seek work or hold a job; and allowing police to arrest suspected illegal immigrants without a warrant.
Assignment1
1. Vocabulary--identify and define words you do not know.
2. Write a two paragraph summary in your own words of this article
3. Do you agree that illegal immigration is a problem? If so, do you agree with the Arizona laws requiring the police to ask for identification for anything, even a parking ticket?
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