Civil rights organizations Tuesday asked a federal judge in Phoenix to stop the state from enforcing the one provision of SB 1070 that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld.
Under challenge is the "stop and check" provision, which requires all state and local law-enforcement officers to check immigration status of people they suspect of being in the country illegally.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and other groups filed a request for an injunction with U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton. She is the judge who originally blocked enforcement of several parts of the law shortly after it was passed two years ago.
A spokesman for Gov. Jan Brewer, who took the case to the Supreme Court, called the latest challenge "unsurprising."
The Supreme Court last month ruled that three of the four blocked provisions were unconstitutional. The fourth, requiring law-enforcement checks, was deemed constitutional, and Arizona officials have been preparing to enforce it.
The effective date is Friday, but the civil rights groups are seeking to keep that from occurring, saying that although it was upheld, the Supreme Court "noted potential constitutional problems with section 2(B), the 'show me your papers” provision."
The latest legal action is based on a different argument than what the federal government claimed before the Supreme Court. The government's argument was based on federal sovereignty, that only it could enforce immigration laws.
The latest appeal is based on claims that the law will lead to discrimination against Latinos based on racial profiling.
State officials have said there won't be racial profiling under the law, and they wrote provisions into it to bar such activity and have issued training guidelines for law-enforcement officers.
Brewer spokesman said the request for a halt to the provision was "unsurprising as opponents of SB 1070 have indicated they'll go to any length in order to block Arizona's implementation of this law."
"The Supreme Court has already spoken unanimously on the constitutionality of this provision," Brewer spokesman Matt Benson told the Arizona Republic.
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