ACLU, NAACP and other prominent organizations sue to stop Arizona's racist immigration law

[Better Believe It]

ACLU sues to stop Arizona's immigration law
A class-action suit filed by civil rights groups argues that the measure will lead to racial profiling and violates the Constitution.
By Nicholas Riccardi
May 17, 2010

Several civil rights organizations filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to halt a controversial new Arizona law that requires local police to enforce federal immigration regulations.

The lawsuit is at least the fourth filed since Republican Gov. Jan Brewer last month signed the law, which makes it a state crime to lack immigration paperwork in Arizona and requires police to determine the status of people they suspect are illegal immigrants. The federal class-action claim contends that the law will lead to widespread racial profiling, infringes on the federal government's ability to set immigration policy and violates the Constitution's 1st and 4th amendments.

"This law is shameful, un-American, it will undermine public safety and it is unconstitutional," said Lucas Guttentag, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, among the groups that filed the suit. Also named are the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-arizona-immigration-20100518,0,3302168.story