Breaking News: Split Decision from Alabama on Alabama's Immigration Law

AP reports that a federal judge has refused to block key parts of Alabama's new law on illegal immigration, including its requirement to check the immigration status of students. U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn blocked some other parts of the law. In United States v. Alabama, Blackburn ruled that federal law does not prohibit the state from requiring schools to check the immigration status of students or from requiring police to determine the status of suspected illegal immigrants. However, the court upheld the Obama administration's challenges to some other sections of the law, including making it a crime for an illegal immigrant to solicit work or for anyone to transport or harbor an illegal immigrant.

UPDATE:  Here is a copy of the decision.   Download Alabama ruling  Ruthann Robson on the Constitutional Law Prof blog offers a concise, and thoughtful, rundown of the ruling.

In another opinion issued the same day dealing with different challenges by different plaintiffs, Judge Blackburn enjoined some more provisions in the Alabama immigration law, including the section that would have barred undocumented immigrants from the public universities.  For Ruthann Robson's analysis of this ruling on the Constitutional Law Prof blog, click here.

KJ