Federal Judge Will Not Speed Up No-Match Rule Case

Bob Egelko writes for the San Francisco Chronicle:

A federal judge in San Francisco rejected the Bush administration’s request today to speed up consideration of rules that would pressure employers to fire suspected illegal immigrants whose Social Security numbers didn’t match records in the government’s database. 

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer – who blocked the so-called no-match rule from taking effect in October 2007 – turned down a proposal by the Department of Homeland Security for an accelerated hearing schedule that might have allowed a new version to take effect before President Bush leaves office next month. 

Instead, Breyer set a standard schedule for consideration of a lawsuit by labor unions and business groups challenging the rule, with written arguments planned through Feb. 24. He observed that the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama might want to take another look at the issue, said Scott Kronland, lawyer for the AFL-CIO and several other unions in the case. 

“There was no policy reason for trying to expedite things to prevent a new administration from looking at these last-minute rules,” Kronland said. 

He noted that Homeland Security had taken more than a year after Breyer issued his injunction to submit its current version of the rule, which contains new rationales but is virtually identical to the previous proposal.  Click here for the rest of the story.

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