Arizona Will Appeal Ruling on Immigration Law, Governor Says - Bloomberg

By William McQuillen - Jul 29, 2010

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said she will appeal a judge’s ruling that struck key provisions of a state law that would have forced police to determine the immigration status of people stopped for questioning.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton in Phoenix held yesterday that the state can’t mandate that police make a “reasonable attempt” to determine whether a person is legally in the U.S. and then detain him if there is “suspicion” that he isn’t.

Arizona will have a difficult time with an immediate appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, said Peter Spiro, an immigration professor at Temple University’s law school in Philadelphia. Courts would be unlikely to revisit any rulings until Bolton holds a trial on the merits of the case.

“The key provisions of the Arizona law were unprecedented,” Spiro said in an interview. “It’s a sound ruling.” (the rest of the story is at Arizona Will Appeal Ruling on Immigration Law, Governor Says - Bloomberg)