State Action: Challenge to Oklahoma Law Dismissed Again and New Lawsuit Challenging Arizona Law Filed

Litigation continues over state efforts to enter the immigration regulation scene.

Here is news from Oklahoma.  A federal district court has again dismissed a challenge to the Oklahoma immigration statute.  As previously reported here, Judge Payne dismissed the suit in October because the plaintiffs could not show that the law had damaged them before it took effect. This time, he granted the state’s motion to dismiss because the plaintiffs named in the lawsuit lacked standing to challenge the law.

The Oklahoma law requires state and local agencies to verify the citizenship and immigration status of applicants for state or local benefits. It also requires public agencies and private companies to use a program to screen Social Security numbers to make sure they are real and match up with the job applicant’s name.

And, from Arizona, on December 8, we reported that a federal court had dismissed a challenge to the Arizona immigration statute for failure to sue the correct defendants.  Now, a coalition of civil rights groups has filed a new lawsuit claiming that the “Legal Arizona Workers Act” unlawfully requires businesses to participate in a flawed work authorization verification database, lacks due process protections, improperly threatens businesses with penalties that interferes with federal law, and would lead to discrimination against workers who are perceived as “foreign.”  For the ACLU press release, click here.  Lawyers on the case include Jonathan Weissglass, Stephen Berzon and Rebecca Smullin of Altshuler Berzon LLP; Kristina Campbell and Cynthia Valenzuela of MALDEF; Linton Joaquin, Monica T. Guizar and Karen C. Tumlin of NILC; Daniel Pochoda of the ACLU of Arizona; Jadwat, Lucas Guttentag and Jennifer C. Chang of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project.

KJ