Civil liberties group in Arizona will appeal SB 1070 ruling
Oct 5, 2015, 12:53 PM
(AP Photo)
(AP Photo)
PHOENIX — The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona announced Monday morning it would appeal a ruling in its challenge of SB 1070, the state’s controversial immigration law.
Plaintiffs and counsel from the case, Valle del Sol v. Whiting, stood on State Capitol grounds to read their intention in the case questioning the constitutionality on Arizona’s controversial law.
The appeal followed U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton’s dismissal of the challenge in September.
Challengers failed to show that police would, “enforce the statute differently for Latinos than it would for people of other ethnicities,” according to the Associated Press on Bolton’s decision.
The Supreme Court struck down some parts of the bill, but allowed the “show me your papers” portion. Officers can demand to see immigration documents from an arrested or detained person when there is a “reasonable suspicion” the person is in the country illegally.
One of the plaintiffs, U.S.-born Jim Shee, said at the press conference that he had been racially profiled by police.
Plaintiff Jim Shee, who has been profiled by police because of his race, speaks about why #sb1070 appeal is needed pic.twitter.com/na0NxRGgKx
— ACLU of Arizona (@ACLUaz) October 5, 2015
Shee told the ACLU he had seen effects of SB 1070 before the law had gone into effect, saying he had, already been stopped twice by law enforcement officers in Arizona and asked to produce his “papers.”
Former Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law in 2010. In a 2014 interview with KTAR, Brewer stood by her signing of the bill.
“I would absolutely not do anything different in regard to 1070,” she said. “I believe in the rule of law and that’s all we were enforcing by state and federal law.”
