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Gov. Brewer’s Attempt To Have SB 1070 Lawsuit Thrown Out Fails

Posted October 13, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.
Categories: Hate Watch

Judge Bolton rejected efforts by Gov. Jan Brewer and Sheriff Joe Arpaio to dismiss legal actions against the implementation of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, SB 1070.

In July, the nation’s attention focused on the federal court house in Phoenix where Judge Susan Bolton issued a preliminary injunction against implementation of SB 1070. Last week, she swatted back an attempt by Governor Brewer to have the lawsuit, which was filed by the ACLU and other legal groups, thrown out of court. The case, Friendly House v. Whiting, was attacked by Brewer for not stating a Constitutional claim. Judge Bolton disagreed.

Brewer attempted to dismiss the plaintiffs’ charge that SB 1070:

“was enacted with the purpose and intent to discriminate against racial and national origin minorities, including Latinos, on the basis of race and national origin.” Plaintiffs also allege that S.B. 1070 “impermissibly and invidiously targets Plaintiffs who are racial and national origin minorities . . . and subjects them to stops, detentions, questioning, and arrests because of their race and/or national origin,” and that Section 3 of S.B. 1070 “impermissibly discriminates against non-citizen Plaintiffs on the basis of alienage and deprives them of the equal protection of the laws.”

Judge Bolton responded that:

The Complaint contains adequate allegations that race, alienage, or national origin discrimination was a motivating factor in the enactment of S.B. 1070.8 Race, alienage and national origin are so rarely relevant to the achievement of a legitimate state interest that laws grounded in such considerations are subject to strict scrutiny. For the purposes of a challenge under Rule 12(b)(6), the Complaint contains “non-conclusory ‘factual content,’” from which the Court can draw “reasonable inferences . . . [that are] plausibly suggestive of a claim entitling the plaintiff to relief.” Governor Brewer’s Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs’ Equal Protection and § 1981 claims is denied.

Judge Bolton dealt similarly with other grounds for dismissal put forward by Brewer’s team, only dismissing a couple of minor claims.

Tags : arizona, brewer, sb 1070

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