In its ruling, the Ninth Circuit turned down a request by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who asked the Ninth Circuit to lift an injunction imposed by a federal judge the day before the controversial law was to go into effect, last July 29.
The original law was enacted in April of last year after Arizona officials argued that they needed their own immigration law to keep illegal immigrants out of the state. Federal efforts, the state argued, were not enough.
The law immediately sparked boycotts and protests across the nation as immigration activists argued that Arizona was trying to usurp a federal prerogative to define immigration rules and had proposed unconstitutional actions, including profiling.
The Obama administration’s Justice Department sued to block the law from going into effect. It argued that the federal government had the responsibility for immigration law.
Wall Street Journal
