In a split decision, the Supreme Court upheld one part of a tough Arizona immigration law, but struck down other sections. The Court upheld the part of the law requiring police offficers when stopping someone to make efforts to verify the person’s immigration status with the federal government. The court struck down the following provisions:
- One making it a crime for an illegal immigrant to work or to seek work in Arizona;
- One which authorized state and local officers to arrest people without a warrant if the officers have probable cause to believe a person is an illegal immigrant;
- And one that made it a state requirement for immigrants to register with the federal government.
Joining Kennedy's majority opinion were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito concurred in part and dissented in part. Justice Elena Kagan, who served as Obama’s solicitor general, had recuse herself from the Arizona case.
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