PHOENIX — A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona’s immigration law from taking effect, delivering a last-minute victory to opponents of the crackdown.
The overall law will still take effect Thursday, but without the provisions that angered opponents — including sections that required officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws.
The judge also put on hold parts of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places.
U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled that the controversial sections should be put on hold until the courts resolve the issues.
07/28/2010 87 ORDER granting in part and denying in part the United States’ 27 Motion for Preliminary Injunction. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED denying the United States’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction as to the following Sections of Senate Bill 1070 (as amended by House Bill 2162): Section 1, Section 2(A) and (C)-(L), Section 4, the portion of Section 5 creating A.R.S. § 13-2929, the portion of Section 5 creating A.R.S. § 13-2928(A) and (B), and Sections 7-13. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED preliminarily enjoining the State of Arizona and Governor Brewer from enforcing the following Sections of Senate Bill 1070 (as amended by House Bill 2162): Section 2(B) creating A.R.S. § 11-1051(B), Section 3 creating A.R.S. § 13-1509, the portion of Section 5 creating A.R.S. § 13-2928 (C), and Section 6 creating A.R.S. § 13-3883(A)(5). Signed by Judge Susan R Bolton on 07/28/10. (NOTE: See attached pdf for complete details) (ESL) (Entered: 07/28/2010)
WASHINGTON – Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia have submitted a brief to the Supreme Court in support of a father who sued anti-gay protesters over their demonstration at the 2006 funeral of his son, a Marine killed in Iraq.
Only Virginia and Maine declined to sign the brief by the Kansas attorney general.
Albert Snyder sued over protests by the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church at his son’s funeral in Maryland. The church pickets funerals because they believe war deaths are punishment for U.S. tolerance of homosexuality.
The Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the protesters’ message is protected by the First Amendment.
In the brief filed Tuesday, the states argued they have a compelling interest in protecting the sanctity of funerals.
(AP) – The Kentucky Senate, reacting to a divisive comment by Republican Rand Paul, has adopted a resolution declaring any form of discrimination to be inconsistent with American values.
Louisville Democratic Sen. Gerald Neal introduced the resolution Friday during a special session on the state budget. It was adopted without objection in the predominantly Republican chamber.
Neal, Kentucky’s only black state senator, said he took personal offense at the comment made last week by Paul, a U.S. Senate candidate, who was criticizing the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Paul said in an MSNBC interview that the federal government shouldn’t have the power to force restaurants to serve minorities if business owners don’t want to.
Neal said Paul’s “extreme belief” has made Kentucky “a laughingstock.”
Police chiefs from 10 major U.S. cities, including Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., expressed strong disapproval of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law today, May 26 in a meeting with US Attorney General Eric Holder. …
Tucson Chief of Police Roberto Villaseñor discussed what he told Holder. “We have all expressed concern that this will cause a divide between our communities and our agencies,” he said.
Recent declines in crime, Villaseñor explained, have resulted from hard-won close relations between the community and the police. Police are more successful in protecting communities from crime when they have good communication and close ties to the people they protect. …
San Jose Chief of Police Ron Davis said the police understand people’s “frustration” with the broken immigration system. He added, however, that local law enforcement agencies should not be handed immigration enforcement as a top priority. In addition to driving a “wedge” between the police and the communities they protect, local law enforcement agencies don’t have the resources to enforce federal laws. “It’s a matter of resources, and its a matter of trying to figure out what our priorities are,” he noted.
Major city police chiefs have agreed on this point for many years, Davis added.
Chief Harris stated, “Immigration is a serious issue. It’s a federal responsibility to resolve those problems.”
It’s a shame that political wives have to clam themselves up so much, but that’s the way it is. Good for Laura Bush for saying saying her beliefs out loud, now that she is uncaged.
Galen Carey, director of government affairs for the National Evangelical Association, tells Yahoo! News the organization is seeking to rally support for comprehensive immigration reform. The campaign begins with a full-page ad Thursday in Roll Call, a Washington newspaper that covers Congress.
“What we say is: There does need to be some workable system that’s put in place to address the situation of people that are already here,” Carey said.
The association, which includes members from 40 evangelical denominations, reached consensus on the issue of immigration reform in 2009 — almost two years after President George W. Bush’s failed attempts to reform immigration — by focusing on the biblical material that supports immigration. (The group took no official stand on the issue during the last congressional debate.) The group’s 2009 resolution on immigration includes several paragraphs citing scriptural authority:
“Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the families of his sons turned to Egypt in search of food,” it says. “Joseph, Naomi, Ruth, Daniel and his friends, Ezekiel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther all lived in foreign lands. In the New Testament, Joseph and Mary fled with Jesus to escape Herod’s anger and became refugees in Egypt.”
The 2009 resolution calls for a path to citizenship for immigrants who are in the country illegally but “who desire to embrace the responsibilities and privileges that accompany citizenship.”
Thursday’s ad, Carey said, calls for reform that “establishes a path toward legal status and/or citizenship for those who qualify and who wish to become permanent residents.”
State legislatures are out of control. This is simple lunacy.
CHICAGO: The governor of Oklahoma is considering tough new abortion bills that would allow doctors to withhold test results showing foetal defects and require women to answer intrusive questions.
The results of the questionnaires would be posted online.
Women would also be required to have a vaginal ultrasound and listen to a detailed description of the embryo or foetus in a third bill passed by the legislature on Monday.
The requirements would be among the most ”extreme” in the US and were similar to those struck down by a state court as unconstitutional earlier this year, the Centre for Reproductive Rights said on Tuesday.
”Despite the prospect and cost of additional legal challenges, the legislature is determined to severely limit women’s ability to get an abortion in the state, approving laws with clear constitutional flaws and with absolute disregard for women’s rights and health,” the centre said in a statement urging a veto of the bills.
A spokesman for the Governor, Brad Henry, declined to comment on his intention for the bills.
So let me get this straight. If a woman in Oklahoma thinks she is pregnant, she can go in for “testing”…but she won’t get to know all the results. And she has to fill out a form so her sexual history can be posted on the web. And she’s going to get a pointless ultrasound and a lecture scripted by the likes of Prolife across America.
Coming Soon
The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan
On air and online April 20, 2010 at 9:00pm (check local listings)
As the United States deepens its commitment to Afghanistan, FRONTLINE takes viewers inside the war-torn nation to reveal a disturbing practice that is once again flourishing in the country: the organized sexual abuse of adolescent boys.
In The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan, airing Tuesday, April 20, 2010, at 9 P.M. on PBS (check local listings), Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi (Behind Taliban Lines) returns to his native land to expose an ancient practice that has been brought back by powerful warlords, former military commanders and wealthy businessmen. Known as “bacha bazi” (literal translation: “boy play”), this illegal practice exploits street orphans and poor boys, some as young as 11, whose parents are paid to give over their sons to their new “masters.” The men dress the boys in women’s clothes and train them to sing and dance for the entertainment of themselves and their friends. According to experts, the dancing boys are used sexually by these powerful men. …
“It’s a disgusting practice. … It’s a form of slavery, taking a child, keeping him. It’s a form of sexual slavery,” says Radhika Coomaraswamy, U.N. special representative for Children and Armed Conflict. “The only way to stop bacha bazi is if you prosecute the people who commit the crime, and that’s what we need, because the laws are there in the books against this practice.”
In the documentary, Quraishi interviews local police officials who insist that men who participate in bacha bazi will be arrested and punished regardless of their wealth or powerful connections. Later that day, however, Quraishi’s cameras catch two officers from the same police department attending an illegal bacha bazi party.
“Many of the people who do this work for the government,” says Nazir Alimy, who compiled a report on bacha bazi for UNICEF. “They speak out against it but are abusers themselves. … I personally cannot mention any names because I am scared.”
