Obama Administration Trying to File a Lawsuit on Arizona's new law

“In the legal battle over Arizona's new immigration law, an ironic subtext has emerged: whether a Bush-era legal opinion complicates a potential Obama administration lawsuit against Arizona.” The document that was written in 2002 by the Justice Department’s Office of legal Counsel states police officers have “inherent power” to arrest undocumented immigrants. The reason the arrest would be justified was due to the fact that illegal immigrants violate federal law. This memo was issued by Jay S. Bybee. He helped to write memos that sanctioned harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects. Due to the fact that the memo has not been withdrawn, supporters of the Arizona law said it would be awkward for the Obama administration to make a Justice Department Lawsuit against Arizona. The question is “How can you blame someone for exercising authority that the department says they have?” This has become a hard question to answer. As long as the memo is in place it seems like it will be hard for the Obama administration to file a lawsuit against Arizona. Even though the Obama administration has been having trouble in filing a federal lawsuit, civil rights groups have filed. On Monday they filed what they said was the fifth federal lawsuit over the legislation. Cecilia Wang, managing attorney of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project said that the power the Arizona law gives to police “goes far beyond” the basic authority cited in the memo. Wang has called for the Obama Justice Department to withdraw the 2002 memo. She states that the memo give Arizona and other states a comfort to pass overbroad and extraordinary anti-immigration measures.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/17/AR2010051702175.html?sub=AR