A Win for Arizona, and the Rule of Law

[Valin]

NRO:

5/27/11

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld Arizona’s 2007 law requiring all employers in the state to use the federal E-Verify system for screening out illegal aliens and revoking the business licenses of firms that knowingly hire them.

The court split 5–3 along party lines: Breyer, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor (Kagan recused herself) ignored the plain meaning of the federal law empowering states to use their licensing power to address the employment of illegal workers. Chief Justice Roberts, on the other hand, found “no basis in law, fact, or logic” for the argument that Arizona should be stopped from doing so in the name of federal “preemption” of state activity.

It’s an important win for many reasons, not least of them the fact that Arizona’s E-Verify mandate actually works. While the illegal-alien population nationwide fell 7 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to the Department of Homeland Security, the number of illegal aliens in Arizona fell by nearly 18 percent, and many analysts credit the E-Verify mandate with that success.

The Court’s decision was a resounding loss for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce–Obama administration effort to prevent states from buttressing federal immigration law. While it doesn’t necessarily follow that the Court will also uphold the suspended portions of last year’s SB1070 — which makes it a state crime to be an illegal immigrant in Arizona and imposes stiff penalties on those who employ and enable illegals — the ruling is a green light for other states to pass their own E-Verify laws. A dozen have already enacted mandates of varying breadth, most recently Georgia and Indiana.

(Snip)