Constitutional Law

What Happens in Arizona, Stops in Arizona

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU

By now, you've heard about SB 1070, a racial profiling bill in Arizona that was signed into law last month. This outrageous and unconstitutional racial profiling law is causing a national uproar — and for good reason.

The ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, the ACLU of Arizona, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the National Immigration Law Center have teamed up to mount a legal challenge to this extreme new law. The goal is to prevent the law from ever going into effect.

But lawsuits are not enough. We need you to take action too.

Send a message to your state lawmaker and governor. Tell them: What happens in Arizona, stops in Arizona. Only a complete rejection of this dangerous, un-American approach will prevent it from spreading to other states.

One Arizona sheriff, Clarence Dupnik of Pima County, called SB 1070 "racist" and "unnecessary." And Phil Gordon, mayor of Phoenix, Arizona's largest city, is planning his own legal challenge to the law.

We've asked our 53 local affiliates to keep their ear to the ground and monitor for any legislation that aims to copy Arizona's law. We're hearing rumblings of copycat laws already. Ohio Sheriff Richard Jones has asked his state's governor to pass legislation that mimics Arizona's SB 1070. Fortunately, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland nixed the idea.

But even if you think your elected representatives and governor are sympathetic on this issue, they need to hear from you that you will not tolerate a dangerous racial profiling law.

Arizona's new law sacrifices the civil liberties of millions of people living and working in Arizona, while doing nothing to address the real problems the state is facing. We must make sure this kind of law doesn't spread to other states.

Arizona's new law blatantly disregards America's most fundamental values of fairness and equality. Act now.

We also want to see what you think about this law. Make a sign, and then send us a photo. We'll feature our favorites on this page.

Full post as published by Blog of Rights on May 04, 2010 (boomark / email).