Arizona police sound alarm after court justices uphold immigration checks

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Arizona police sound alarm after court justices uphold immigration checks

Ed Pilkington and Ewen MacAskill
guardian.co.uk, Monday 25 June 2012 23.13 BST

Senior police officers in Arizona have warned that their relations with Hispanic communities could be damaged after the US supreme court allowed a section of the state's hardline immigration law to stand.

The provision, dubbed the "show me your papers" clause, requires that officers check the immigration status of anyone they "reasonably suspect" of being present illegally in the US.

US supreme court justices allowed the measure to stand on Monday, when they struck down other aspects of Arizona's draconian anti-immigration laws.

Roberto Villasenor, the chief of police of Arizona's second largest city, Tucson, warned that the supreme court was taking the police into dangerous new territory. He said no case law existed that gave clear guidance on how officers should interpret the "reasonable suspicion" clause – a term that is not defined in the text of the legislation.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/25/arizona-police-alarm-immigration-checks

[nashville_brook]

1. racial profiling is now a confirmed american value.

just awful.

[Scootaloo]

3. What, just now?

[Meiko]

6. The cops have been

using profiling for years, now they act like the sky is falling.

[DirkGently]

2. Wonder how many will be stopped for looking

... suspiciously Canadian.

It's official. The U.S. Supreme Court is out to get us. All.

[freshwest]

8. Or poor?

[Laelth]

4. SCOTUS delayed on this.

They said they needed the Arizona courts to actually create established case law on what constitutes "reasonable suspicion" before they could determine whether the Arizona law constituted an unreasonable seizure under the 4th Amendment. The SCOTUS did the right thing, here. Though the Arizona law turns my stomach because it was motivated, in part, by racism, the SCOTUS simply could not rule on the constitutionality of this provision until it had been thoroughly tested in the Arizona courts. That makes good sense. The SCOTUS left the door open for this provision to be challenged after the Arizona courts have set some guidelines.

-Laelth

[bongbong]

5. The "reasonable suspicion" standards

1) you aren't driving a $100,000+ car, and/or
2) you don't have stickers from exclusive $10,000 a year country clubs on your car, and/or
3) you aren't white as a ghost, and/or
4) you don't have a teabagger bumpersticker on your car

[freshwest]

9. I guess folks will need to get those AZ teabagger plates...

Sorry, you may not want to look at the website that had the picture:

Rather unpleasant comments there, too.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/its-official-tea-party-license-plates-coming-to-az/

[Baitball Blogger]

7. Anyone else get the feeling that Arizona is working its way to its own

Trayvon Martin situation?

[jillan]

10. But but but Jan Bruja said they were getting special training.

[pinboy3niner]

11. The absolute WORST thing about the decision...

...is seeing Jan brewer back on my TeeVee machine. Oh, the humanity!