Supreme Court Rejects Most of Arizona’s Immigration Law [Video]

The U.S. Supreme Court this morning tossed out most of the provisions of Arizona’s immigration law, although it left one key provision in effect that allows police to check the immigration status of those they’ve detained.

According to the Washington Post…

The court ruled that Arizona cannot make it a misdemeanor for immigrants to fail to carry identification that says whether they are in the United States legally; cannot make it a crime for undocumented immigrations to apply for a job; and cannot arrest someone based solely on the suspicion that the person is in this country illegally.

The most contentious provision–allowing police to check the immigration status of suspects if they have reasonable suspicion they are here illegally–was upheld, however.

Justice Kennedy wrote the 5-3 majority opinion that federal law pursuant to the Constitution’s supremacy clause preempted Arizona’s immigration enforcement statute, S.B. 1070 (Kagan recused herself), concluding that “Arizona may have understandable frustrations with the problems caused by illegal immigration while that process continues, but the State may not pursue policies that undermine federal law.”

Justice Scalia, in a dissenting opinion, wrote in part:

Arizona has moved to protect its sovereignty—not in contradiction of federal law, but in complete compliance with it. The laws under challenge here do not extend or revise federal immigration restrictions, but merely enforce those restrictions more effectively. If securing its territory in this fashion is not within the power of Arizona, we should cease referring to it as a sovereign State. I dissent.

Here is some of CNN’s initial coverage as the news was breaking:

Look for the highly anticipated ruling on ObamaCare on Thursday.