WASHINGTON -- On Wednesday morning, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the federal government's challenge to the Grand Canyon state's controversial anti-immigration law, S.B. 1070.
The case, Arizona v. United States, will not only be the Court's second politically-charged blockbuster in as many months, but also a rematch between the Solicitor General Donald Verrilli and D.C. superlawyer Paul Clement. Over three days in late March, they faced off over the limits of federal power in the health care cases. This time, they will have a single hour debate over whether states may invade fields of immigration policy the federal government claims to occupy. It will be the justices' final oral argument of the term.
Specifically at issue are four provisions of the law that the lower courts blocked, finding them likely to conflict with federal immigration laws. Two of the blocked sections make it a crime under state law for an undocumented immigrant to be present in the state, fail to register with the federal government and attempt to obtain work or hold a job without governmental authorization.
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