After suffering a major legal setback in the summer, Arizona regained its footing in court Friday when a federal judge dismissed parts of the U.S. Justice Department's challenge to the state's new immigration law and rejected several claims made by Hispanic activists and Phoenix police officers.
U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton's ruling on Friday struck down the federal government's challenge to the portion of the law that prohibits the transport of illegal immigrants.
It also rejected a challenge from Phoenix police officers and an advocacy group called Chicanos Por La Causa who argued that the cops could be sued for racial profiling if they enforced the law or lose their jobs if they didn't.
Bolton agreed with Arizona that they had no valid claim of immediate harm.
Bolton also dismissed a lawsuit from the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders who were seeking an injunction preventing authorities from enforcing the law because the group argued federal law pre-empts state regulation of national borders.
"I am pleased with today's decision," Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said in a statement Friday. "I strongly believe that the citizens of Arizona will ultimately prevail in all of these legal challenges. My defense of the rule of law will continue as vigorously as ever.”
This is an important development in the impending court case that was brought by the US Justice Department, earlier this year. It will allow local authorities to be able to move prisoners and greatly lowers the chance of officers and police departments being sued for racial profiling, if the question and hold suspects for illegal immigration violations. The judge, also, backed the notion brought up by the Arizona governor that states have every right to protect their borders just as the federal government does.
However, the judge refused to reject the case entirely. Some of the more controversial aspects to the law are still able to be challenged in court sometime next year.
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