Supreme Court Upholds Arizona Law Penalizing Hiring of Illegal Immigrants

The U.S. Supreme Court May 26 upheld the Legal Arizona Workers Act, a law that allows the state to revoke the business licenses of employers that knowingly hire illegal immigrants and requires employers in the state to use E-Verify (Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting).

Writing for the majority in the 5-3 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts said that the licensing portion of the Arizona law is not preempted by federal law because it falls under the Immigration Reform and Control Act’s savings clause, which permits state “licensing and similar laws.” The state law is a “licensing provision” that ...