Last Friday Arizona Governor Jan Brewer lost in federal court in her lawsuit against the US government over its alleged failure to enforce federal immigration laws.  Brewer’s suit was originally filed as a countersuit to a US Department of Justice lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona’s “Papers Please Law” (SB 1070).  Arizona’s case was dismissed by US District Court Judge Susan Bolton who had earlier halted the racial profiling provisions of SB 1070 from going into effect.

However, Governor Brewer is not about to give up. 

It is interesting to note that Arizona, with one of the highest concentrations of Latino residency, is doing everything that it can to jail undocumented Latinos, while our neighboring state, California (with comparably high Latino residency), is trying to find ways to legalize those who are in that state for good reason.  Last week, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into state law the California Dream Act, which will lift barriers to college for thousands of undocumented students. 

Granted, California’s move is a small step considering the much broader immigration reforms needed in areas like amnesty, citizen deveolopment and temporary work programs.  But, as noted in an editorial in the New York Times last week, Governor Brown’s move represents a “sensible path”  toward meeting those goals. 

Arizona, unfortunately, appears to be headed in the opposite direction.  Our state is doing everything that it can to curtail legislation that will legalize the status of hard-working, responsible undocumented members of our community.  Our Tea Party controlled state government wants to have as many of these people as possible jailed and deported.  More importantly, they want to intimidate the majority of our Latino community in order to keep them away from the voting booths. 

And, it appears to be working. 

Governor Brewer and her Tea Party puppet-masters are hopeful that the United States Supreme Court will reverse the preliminary injunction that halted parts of SB 1070 from going into effect last year.  Based on states’ rights decisions recently upheld by the Roberts' Court, they may not be disappointed. 

Our current SCOTUS team and the Tea Party seem to have many commonly held beliefs (and sponsors):

Justice Clarence Thomas with his Koch brother compatriots    

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Update 10/27/11: 

As reported in The New York Times today, Jan Brewer has brought in the big guns to support her case before the US Supreme Court.  Paul D. Clement, a conservative advocate and a true “friend of the court,” will be representing Gov. Brewer in her attempt to overturn the SB 1070 preliminary injunction.  According to the NYT article: 

As a former clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, Mr. Clement maintains a breezy but respectful rapport with the justices…  

That is among the reasons Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona hired Mr. Clement to handle her state’s Supreme Court appeal of rulings against its groundbreaking immigration law.  

Plus, the Arizona taxpayers are paying for this.