by Pamela Powers Hannley Undoubtedly one of the more contentious local races this election season is the non-partisan 12-person race for three unpaid positions on the Tucson Unified School District's (TUSD) Governing Board. In this race, there are two University of Arizona professors, a call center supervisor, a Sunnyside School District employee, a self-employed landscaper, a … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Last week the Pennsylvania Supreme Court punted the voter ID case back to the trial judge with instructions to reconsider the evidence and to enter an injunction if the evidence shows that the state's new voter ID law cannot be liberally applied to prevent the disenfranchisement of any voter of their state constituional right to vote.
On Tuesday, the trial court judge began a supplemental evidentiary hearing and instructed attorneys to begin preparing an injunction. Pennsylvania voter ID requirements change – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
The state judge listening to a new round of arguments on the state's voter identification law concluded the day-long session by directing attorneys to come prepared Thursday to argue what they think a potential injunction should look like.
Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson said it's his responsibility to consider the possibility of halting the new law — which requires all voters present a photo ID card with an expiration date in order to cast a ballot — and how to tailor such an action so that it addresses why the law isn't being properly implemented.
"I think it's possible there could be an injunction entered here," he said. "I need some input from people who have been thinking about this longer than I have."
by Pamela Powers Hannley
Sometimes you just don't know what you're going to find on the Internet. I was looking for something completely different, and Goggle gave me this…
After the jump, watch a 2010 video of Republican Congressional candidate and Mexican immigrant Gabriela Saucedo Mercer voicing her support for SB1070. (She also takes the opportunity to dump on Councilwoman Regina Romero and Congressman Raul Grijalva, her current opponent in the CD3 race.)
by Pamela Powers Hannley Tucson has a reputation of being Arizona's hotbed of liberal thought, old hippie ideas, great music, and electic art, but how progressive is Tucson? Pretty darn progressive… – Recently 341 Pima County residents were elected as precinct committee people (PCs). These volunteers represent the Democratic Party's ground game. They show up to … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Both The Arizona Republic and the Arizona Daily Star subscribe to the syndicated Washington Post op-eds. Somehow I don't think they will be republishing today's editorial opinion from the Washington Post. Arizona’s bad immigration law takes effect:
AFTER A TWO-YEAR struggle, a federal judge this week authorized Arizona law enforcement agencies to require officers to check the immigration status of anyone they suspect is in the country illegally. Wearing the wrong clothes, speaking with the wrong accent or having the wrong skin color could land you in hot water in Arizona.
The state’s “show me your papers” provision — one of the most bitterly contested parts of the obnoxious immigration law enacted in 2010 — is the second such measure to receive a green light from federal courts. The first was from Alabama, where a similar policy was implemented about a year ago.
There, according to a recent report by the National Immigration Law Center, an immigrant advocacy group, law enforcement officers have created an “environment of racial profiling” that has encouraged private citizens to discriminate and abuse people they regard as foreign. The report, based on thousands of calls to a hotline, recounted instances of Hispanics, including legal residents, who were repeatedly stopped by police on flimsy pretexts and, in some cases, subjected to prolonged roadside detentions.
Arizona has a far larger population of Hispanics than Alabama does, including citizens, legal residents and illegal immigrants. Many of them have good reason to brace for similar treatment. Although the Supreme Court upheld Arizona’s “show me your papers” provision, the justices warned that it could be struck down if it gave rise to a documented pattern of racial profiling or if it caused detentions to be prolonged. The Alabama case suggests that is highly likely.