Supreme Court To Review Arizona Immigration Law: Professor Jack Chin

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona's immigration law, Senate Bill 1070. Its ruling could impact immigration laws nationwide and push the immigration debate into the spotlight during the final months of the 2012 presidential race.

The high court issued its two-sentence decision to hear the case Monday morning. No court date has been set, but justices will likely hear arguments this spring and release a decision in the summer.

At its core, the case is about how large a role states may play in creating and enforcing immigration laws. Bolton ruled that immigration is the responsibility of the federal government, not individual states. State officials maintain that the law merely mirrors existing federal immigration laws and that states have the right to enforce them, particularly when the federal government does not.

This year, several other states passed laws similar to SB 1070 and face federal challenges by the U.S. Department of Justice.

"For practical purposes, it will decide a lot, and it may decide the whole thing," said Jack Chin, a University of California-Davis School of Law professor who studied SB 1070 while at the University of Arizona last year.

"And whatever the Supreme Court says is the law with regard to Arizona is going to be applicable to other states, as well," Chin said.

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