The ACLU has played a key role in challenging immigration laws it views as discriminatory, since a 2006 lawsuit against the city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, which required landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants. A federal court overturned the law in 2010.
ACLU National Director Anthony Romero
The ACLU said Monday it has amassed an $8.7 million fund to sue Arizona and other states with so-called “show me your papers” laws, arguing that such laws amount to racial profiling.
“Bring it on,” said ACLU National Director Anthony Romero in a telephone conference call. “We will fight you anywhere and everywhere.”
In a split decision, the Supreme Court struck down three out of four of the contested provisions of Arizona’s controversial immigration law on Monday.
The decision largely favored the Obama administration, which sued Arizona over the law shortly after it was passed in 2010.
But the ruling left intact perhaps the most controversial portion of the law, section 2B, which calls on state police to check the immigration status of those they stop.
In the Court’s opinion, Justice Kennedy argued that the Justice Department could not demonstrate that section 2B would conflict with federal law without seeing how the state applies the law.
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