Yesterday , the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Arizona "Show Me Your Papers" law, deeming it unconstitutional.
Particularly in trying legislative times, when nearly every core ACLU issue area is under attack in the state legislature and a good number of them in Congress, this significant victory is enough to bring tears to my eyes. Last spring, the ACLU of MAINE and coalition partners in the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition made significant effort to raise awareness around AZ's racial profiling law. I remember feeling particularly down about its passing, knowing that if my family visited AZ,
I would likely have to carry my birth certificate and my father would not .
Thank goodness for checks and balances. Even when a state legislature passes an unconstitutional law and a Governor signs it into law, we have balances to ensure that our government doesn't violate our constitutional rights. I hope that Representative Chase, who introduced a copycat Arizona racial profiling law into Maine's state legislature, will rethink the effort. It's unconstitutional and it defies Maine values of privacy and fairness. Don't put people like me and other Mainers of color in the awkward, marginalizing and maybe even dangerous position of living in a "Show Me Your Papers" state.