Goliath Steps on David, Arizona Fights On!

Nice Town You Got There, Shame If Anything Happened to It [Mark Krikorian]

The other local immigration law that was set to go into effect tomorrow is in the town of Fremont, Nebraska. The ordinance was approved by voters last month and would have prohibited the hiring of, or renting to, illegal aliens.

But the town council there voted last night to suspend the measure because of the prohibitive costs of fighting the ACLU and MALDEF in court:

Fremont appears to be leaning away from a court fight for cost reasons – officials have estimated that implementing the ordinance, including legal fees, would average $1 million per year.

Legal experts say that sets a bad precedent.

Critics of the suits say they amount to intimidation. “The strategy is essentially, ‘You may want to take actions to deal with illegal immigration? It may be what the citizenry wants, but if you try, we’ll bleed you dry in the courts,’“ says Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

Breaking: Judge Blocks Part Of AZ Immigration Law
—DrewM.

It's not overturned but an injunction against the most important parts of the bill until a full trial takes place.

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona's immigration law from taking effect, delivering a last-minute victory to opponents of the crackdown.
The overall law will still take effect Thursday, but without the provisions that angered opponents — including sections that required officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws.

The judge also put on hold parts of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled that those sections should be put on hold until the courts resolve the issues. Other provisions of the law, many of them procedural and slight revisions to existing Arizona immigraiton statute, will go into effect at 12:01 a.m.

..."There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens under the new (law)," Bolton ruled. "By enforcing this statute, Arizona would impose a 'distinct, unusual and extraordinary' burden on legal resident aliens that only the federal government has the authority to impose."

Legal Insurrection has the decision.

Make the ACLU Go Away!

Maybe we should just ignore the ACLU?

ACLU Signs Add to Washington State's Immigration Storm

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
By Jana Winter

An immigration showdown is brewing on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, where simmering tensions and borderline hostility have fueled a turf war between the local community and the Border Patrol agents assigned to protect it.

Now the American Civil Liberties Union has jumped into the ring and upped the ante, rolling out a campaign that will install signs inside buses informing riders of their rights — to ignore Border Patrol agents.

The signs, entitled, "YOUR RIGHTS with border patrol agents on this bus," makes three points:

• If you're a U.S. citizen, you don't have to prove it.
• If you're not a U.S. citizen and are 18 or older, you must show your immigration papers to federal agents.
• Everyone has the right to remain silent.

The campaign, which could start as early as next week, is the latest in a series of expanding grassroots efforts aimed at curbing the expansion of Border Patrol forces and the powers of its agents.

Click here to see ACLU flyer.

Last summer the Border Patrol beefed up its presence in the region, and in October it began conducting random roadside stops at checkpoints located at and within the international border to combat, what it says, is a real threat to national security.

This move has put them at odds with human rights groups and even local law enforcement — some who have rejected federal immigration money to protest the Border Patrol's tactics.

The ACLU has joined forces with left-leaning groups around the state — lavender farmers, retirees, activists, grandparents, Socialists, Green Party members, politicians, Unitarians, Christians, vineyard owners, hippies and other assorted protesters — who say these measures have infringed on people's civil liberties.

I Thought It Was Freedom OF Expression?

HT to Jay at Stop the ACLU!

ACLU Will Challenge Florida License Plate With Cross…Of Course

Posted on April 24, 2008

Of course anyone could see this coming from a mile away. The ACLU oppose license plates that say “pro life”! Did Florida really think they could get away with putting an expression of faith on a license plate for people to purchase? Why, that is just another step in the march to tear down the wall of seperation of church and state that the ACLU have worked so hard to build from their imagination. Crosses are the most offensive thing on the ACLU’s list of offensive things! There is no way the ACLU will not challenge this without equal production of license plates expressing Buddist, Wiccan, Satanist, Islamic, and every other religion in existence.

MIAMI (AP) - Florida drivers can order more than 100 specialty license plates celebrating everything from manatees to the Miami Heat, but one now under consideration would be the first in the nation to explicitly promote a specific religion.

The Florida Legislature is considering a specialty plate with a design that includes a Christian cross, a stained-glass window and the words “I Believe.”

Rep. Edward Bullard, the plate’s sponsor, said people who “believe in their college or university” or “believe in their football team” already have license plates they can buy. The new design is a chance for others to put a tag on their cars with “something they believe in,” he said.

If the plate is approved, Florida would become the first state to have a license plate featuring a religious symbol that’s not part of a college logo. Approval would almost certainly face a court challenge.

The problem with the state manufacturing the plate is that it “sends a message that Florida is essentially a Christian state” and, second, gives the “appearance that the state is endorsing a particular religious preference,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.”


The TrekMedic adds:

Isn't freedom of religious expression on of those pesky Bill of Rights things the left is always trying to quash?

And can you imagine the uproar from the towel-head sector if Florida denied an Islamic-themed license plate??

The ACLU Practices DoubleStandarddradnatSelbuoD, Too!

From BobG at Sweet Spirits of Ammonia:

Once again the infamous ACLU rears its ugly prejudicial head, cheering the House for passing H.R. 1592, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. A bill giving only certain Americans special protection before the law violates the very spirit of equality the ACLU pretends to drape itself in. Nothing new, this obnoxious organization is all about special agendas and how it can subvert the will of the American majority and the intent of the Constitution to promote its leftist agenda.

The bill was introduced by Representative John Conyers (D-MI), one of the Democrats' ethics poster children and legislative lunatics.


The TrekMedic adds local flavor:

Interestingly,...in a city that just created a "Gay Ghetto," mayoral hopeful US Congressman Chaka Fattah did not vote on this bill.

Hmmm,....