Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

AZ ‘Dreamer’ Ruling|Won’t Abate for Brewer

(CN) - The 9th Circuit refused Tuesday to stay its decision that rammed Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer for denying driver's licenses to certain young immigrants.

Brewer's illegal law, issued via executive order, came on the heels of the 2012 "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" (DACA), a federal program that deferred immigration-related actions against certain young adults under 31 who were brought to the country as children and have lived here continuously, gone to school and not committed any crimes.

The governor's directive forbade Arizona agencies from giving DACA recipients any "state identification, including a driver's license."

U.S. District Judge David Campbell initially refused to enjoin Brewer's order, but a three-judge panel with the 9th Circuit reversed in July and the appellate court denied en banc review in the case last month.

Brewer moved on Nov. 28 to stay the 9th Circuit's mandate from taking effect, signaling that she would take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Arizona's certiorari petition will raise "basic and important issues concerning the Equal Protection Clause, the Supremacy Clause and federal immigration law," Brewer's motion said. "Specifically, the petition will raise questions regarding the proper application of the rational basis standard under the Equal Protection Clause, the existence of a 'heightened' rational basis review standard, and the preemptive force of informal federal agency actions."

Brewer also claimed that the recent executive action on immigration by the Obama administration "underscores the fact such policies, which are not law, are easily revised and changed."

"Issuing driver's licenses to deferred action recipients before this issue is reviewed by the Supreme Court is imprudent, given the changeable nature of DHS policy, prior to congressional action," the petition said.

The 9th Circuit denied Brewer's motion without comment Tuesday.

Arizona was one of five states that joined a lawsuit against the United States last week for Obama's recent executive action immigration. Texas filed the original action on behalf of Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...