Arizona Ruling Only a Narrow Opening for Other States

By JULIA PRESTON, NYT

While the Supreme Court’s mixed decision on Monday on Arizona’s immigration enforcement law gave a big political boost to officials there who supported it, the ruling does not seem likely to unleash a new wave of legislation by other states to crack down on illegal immigration.

Gov. Jan Brewer and Arizona lawmakers who wrote the law can claim victory because the court’s decision allows the authorities to go ahead with its most intensely disputed provision, which requires the police to determine the immigration status of anyone they stop if there is a “reasonable suspicion” the person is an illegal immigrant.

But in practice, the legal opening the justices defined for action by states on immigration is relatively narrow, constitutional lawyers said.

On the basis of the ruling, five other states that have already passed similar laws — Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah — should be able to defeat some of the many challenges they faced from civil rights organizations, which have held up those laws in the courts.

(More here.)