Ninth Circuit Upholds Arizona Illegal Alien Hiring Law

Ninth Circuit Upholds Arizona Illegal Alien Hiring Law


On Monday, March 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected a request to revisit a September 2008 decision by a three-judge panel that upheld an Arizona employer sanctions law that penalizes employers for hiring illegal workers. Opponents - including business interests that support illegal immigration like the Arizona Contractors Association, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the pro-illegal immigration advocacy group Chicanos Por La Causa - claimed that the Legal Arizona Workers Act violated the U.S. Constitution and federal law. These interest groups claimed that the three-judge panel had wrongly rejected their claims. In refusing to rehear the case, the Ninth Circuit effectively affirmed the panel's earlier decision, which concluded that the Arizona law did not interfere with the federal government's authority to enforce immigration laws and that it did not violate employers' rights.

(Phoenix Business Journal, March 10, 2009 and Maricopa County Attorney's Office.)