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Friday, September 19, 2008

Courts - Similarities between the 9th Circuit Immigration decision this week, and the Voter ID decision

One view: They were both failed facial challenges to statutes. Discussion of the 9th Circuit's ruling in Chicanos Por La Causa v. Napolitano is here, from yesterday morning. From the story quoted in the Yuma Sun:

Still, the court noted that its ruling is based on the law as it is written and not on its actual application. Because no employers have been sanctioned under the 9-month-old law, an actual case could open up the law to fresh review.

"(W)e must observe that it is brought against a blank factual background of enforcement and outside the context of any particular case," Judge Mary Schroeder wrote for the panel.

Therefore, Wednesday's ruling would not apply to any future complaint based on a real case that challenged the sanctions.

The facial challenge to the Indiana voter ID case, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, was rejected by the 7th Circuit and the SCOTUS.

See "Are Facial Challenges Going the Way of the Dodo?", quoted in this ILB entry from August 9th.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 19, 2008 02:04 PM
Posted to Courts in general