On Friday July 23, 2010 a hearing was held regarding the lawsuits filed against Arizona's immigration law (SB 1070) by the ACLU, MALDEF, and President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.
It went very bad for the ACLU and Obama. Scorecard after first round: Arizona 10, Obama 0.
The most urgent request in the lawsuits is for an injunction to block the law from going into effect on July 29th. Judge Bolton said that she will only consider blocking certain parts of the law and if she does it's not going to be until she is good and ready to, and not before July 29th. Any hopes the Obama conspirators had of rushing an injunction through the system were dashed. Ouch! That came close to a TKO.
The following exchange may become known as a classic argument for controlling immigration. Bolton asked ACLU attorney Omar Jadwat and Department of Justice attorney Edwin Kneedler why the state should not be allowed to require all local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law.
Bolton's stinging question was brilliant because it was so simple and yet so fundamental. Kneedler came up with a feeble answer. Unfortunately we won't be able to watch him stumble because Bolton will not allow video coverage of the hearing. A transcript isn't available yet and I found it very difficult to find Kneedler's answer, which made me suspect that the liberal media establishment wanted to cover up what transpired. Of course that motivated me to uncover what happened!
I put the conversation together in a chronological order by using multiple sources: here and here and here.
At the start of the hearing Bolton established her alpha female status by making it very clear that she wasn't going to tolerate condescending lectures on preemption:
BOLTON: I have a full grasp of Section 3 and the preemption issues with respect to (Section) 3.
Later in the hearing it becomes obvious that Bolton's opening warning was like a chess player who anticipates what will happen several moves later.
BOLTON: Why can’t Arizona be as inhospitable as they wish to people who have remained and entered the United States illegally? Who am I to stop the state of Arizona?
KNEEDLER: It’s not for one of our states to be inhospitable the way Arizona has. It is a direct intrusion into immigration matters and immigration enforcement…It interferes with the enforcement discretion of the federal agencies charged with enforcing those provisions and immigration laws generally.
BOLTON: How is there a preemption issue? I understand there may be other issues, but you’re arguing preemption. Where is the preemption if everybody who is arrested for some crime has their immigration status checked?
Several lawyers tried to explain to Bolton why local police have no authority to enforce federal immigration laws. One of the arguments was that it would be too much hassle to handle the extra work loads, so Bolton came back with a sarcastic retort that law enforcement should be able to handle a few more phone calls. Bolton didn't seem very impressed by their defense.
In order to detect just how bad things went for Obama and the ACLU, from the open borders point of view, evidence can be gathered by monitoring how he liberal media establishment spins the event. This time around they avoided mentioning what happened, which is a standard defense of last resort for liberals that realize to stay ahead they will have to keep the public uninformed.
I have been monitoring local TV news on the SB 1070 issue every day for weeks. On most TV stations the SB 1070 immigration issue is always their top one or two headlines. Not today though!
Channel 12 had one of the best stories on the 5 pm news but almost all of the story was about the protests outside of the court building featuring a sob story from a family of illegals that claim they are moving out of Arizona. Fox News was similar but had different views of the protests. Of course if you like your videos with music tracks you can watch more of the protest on youtube by Dennis Gillman, who is known for his high quality propaganda videos that are produced for the pro amnesty, anti Joe Arpaio movement. Gillman is usually quick to get videos on youtube but the fact that he put this one on the same day of the protest is another clue that the radical liberals are feeling a sense of desperation.
