June 25, 2012, New York – Center for Constitutional Rights Executive Director Vince Warren issued the following statement in response to today’s Supreme court ruling on Arizona's controversial SB1070 immigration law:
The Center for Constitutional Rights is relieved that the Supreme Court reached the right decision in affirming the Ninth Circuit's invalidation of Sections 3, 5 and 6 of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, SB1070, which imposed state criminal penalties for immigration-related violations in blatant violation of the Constitution's Supremacy Clause. But we are extremely disappointed that the Court has endorsed Arizona’s damaging policy of requiring police to stop and interrogate anyone they suspect to be present unlawfully. In upholding Section 2(B) of SB 1070, the Supreme Court has legitimized reactionary state law ordinances that encourage widespread racial profiling, multiply wrongful arrests, and spread fear in communities of color. Today’s decision allows individual states to create a patchwork system of immigration enforcement and in effect undoes decades of precedent holding that regulation of immigration is an exclusively federal function. The Supreme Court has sent the disheartening message that it is willing to turn back the clock to a “states’ rights” era in which the federal courts have no role in protecting the civil rights of people of color.
The Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, the Center for Constitutional Rights has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. Learn more at ccrjustice.org.
Last modified
June 25, 2012