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PDF[A] Utah federal judge blocked a strict state immigration enforcement law Tuesday afternoon. U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups issued a temporary restraining order, granting the request by a long list of plaintiffs, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Center, after a short hearing.
The law, HB 497, “is stayed pending further order of this court,” the minutes of the hearing state. A written ruling was expected to follow. HB 497 was one of a package of three immigration reform bills that were signed into law. One of the other bills establishes a guest-worker program for the state. The law that is being challenged is an enforcement-only bill that required police to check the immigration status of anyone stopped for felonies or some misdemeanors.
Opponents of the law argued that it violated the Constitution’s supremacy clause, which states that federal law has precedence when federal and state laws conflict. They also argued for a stay of the law on the grounds that it violated the Fourth Amendment, which protects from unreasonable search and seizure, and the “fundamental constitutional right to travel.”
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