Source:
Arizona RepublicA federal judge has denied motions by Gov. Jan Brewer, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the tough Arizona immigration law referred to as Senate Bill 1070.
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton issued a detailed ruling Friday allowing the lawsuit to go forward. In her ruling, Bolton found that the plaintiffs, led by the Phoenix advocacy group Friendly House and the American Civil Liberties Union, had standing to bring the lawsuit and that the moment was "ripe" to do so.
And she found merit in their arguments that portions of the controversial law may violate the Fourth and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable search and seizure; the 14th Amendment includes the "equal protection clause," which forbids unequal treatment for different classes of people or racial discrimination.
Bolton also wrote that the plaintiffs had cause to believe their rights could be jeopardized by portions of the law.
The plaintiffs - the ACLU, Friendly House and several other advocacy groups and labor unions - also requested an injunction against the law. Bolton judged that issue as moot because a stay has been in effect since July in a separate lawsuit brought against SB 1070 by the U.S. Department of Justice. There will be a hearing regarding that stay in San Francisco on Nov. 1 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Bolton commented in her ruling that the Fourth Amendment issues were so great that she might have issued a stay on those grounds.
Read more:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2010/10/12/20101012arizona-immigration-law-lawsuit-challenge-denied.html#ixzz12AE4jEjYNo link yet.
I think this is good news. Note the names of the ones wanting to dismiss the case.