Dean Johnson Comments for National Media on Immigration Ruling
Dean Kevin R. Johnson commented for media including the New York Times, the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, MSNBC.com, and radio stations KNX and KPFA on the preliminary injunction that blocked implementation of key provisions of SB 1070, Arizona's controversial immigration law.
As Dean Johnson had predicted in a previous op-ed, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton enjoined implementation of critical sections of the law that pertain directly to immigration. (The Sacramento Bee noted the correctness of the Dean's predictions in its July 30 editorial on the Arizona law.) Her injunction blocked the most controversial sections of SB 1070, including provisions that would require police to check immigration status while enforcing other laws.
In "Constitutional Mainstream," an op-ed published in Room for Debate, a feature of the New York Times website, Dean Johnson praised Judge Bolton's decision. "Rather than bluntly strike down the entire law, she carefully looked at each section and analyzed whether the specific provision of the state law intruded on the federal power to regulate immigration, which the Supreme Court in the 1976 decision of DeCanas v. Bica declared to be ‘unquestionably exclusively a federal power,'" he wrote.
"In my opinion, Judge Bolton's order will withstand an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and, if reviewed, by the U.S. Supreme Court," Dean Johnson's essay concludes. "It faithfully follows relevant precedent and is firmly within the constitutional mainstream."
Kevin R. Johnson is Dean and Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o studies at UC Davis School of Law. He is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of immigration law and policy, refugee law, and civil rights.
Dean Johnson NY Times Op-ed: "Constitutional Mainstream"