Thursday, June 28, 2012

Justice Scalia and SB 1070


By now everyone knows that the Supreme Court struck down 3 of the 4 provisions of the controversial Arizona law restricting immigration. The only part that the court upheld in the 5-4 decision is that the Arizona police will have the right to check the immigration status of people held for probable cause. While  this might be a logistics nightmare for the Arizona police, it stands to reason that if someone probably commits a crime, there immigration status can be questioned, since being illegal is also a crime. 
But what is far more interesting is Justice Scalia's over the top rant ( dissent) on the majority (5-4) opinion. While the majority opinion, written by Justice Kennedy, recognizes the value of immigrants in American society, Scalia seems to think that all immigrants should be thrown out. He says that States kept out people that they did not like.  For example the Southern States kept out black people. And he implied that if Arizona (or any other states) knew of the majority's decision in 2012, when they joined the union, they would not have joined. 
Justice Scalia's father immigrated to the US from Sicily, according to the Wikipedia article on him. Salvatore Eugene Scalia came to this country, worked hard, became a professor and subsequently sent his son, the Justice to Harvard law school. And this immigrant, Salvatore Scalia gave America an excellent ranter, which adds color to otherwise drab Supreme Court opinions. 
Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, or Houston Immigration AttorneyAnnie Banerjee, for more information

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