LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST ALABAMA IMMIGRATION LAW

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and a coalition of civil rights
groups including the ACLU filed a class action lawsuit today challenging Alabama’s extreme anti-immigrant law, HB56, passed last month.
The Alabama law is even more restrictive than the Georgia law HB87 and the Arizona SB 1070. The Alabama law requires school officials to verify the immigration status of children and their parents (which is the most outrageous in the nation); authorizes police to demand “papers” demonstrating citizenship or immigration status during traffic stops; and criminalizes Alabama residence for ordinary, everyday interactions with undocumented individuals.
The lawsuit claims that HB56 is unconstitutional in that it unlawfully interferes with federal power and authority over immigration matters, in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution; subjects Alabama residents to unlawful search and seizure, in violation of the Fourth Amendment; unlawfully deters immigrant families from enrolling their children in public schools; unconstitutionally bars many lawfully present immigrants from attending public colleges or universities in Alabama; and drastically restricts the right to enter into contracts.
If the federal judges there have any sense, they will block these parts from being implemented, similarly to the blocked parts in the Georgia and Arizona laws.