Brewer says Arizona immigration law rewrite 'lays to rest' worries about racial profiling

Late changes to the Arizona immigration law "lay to rest questions over the possibility of racial profiling."
Jan Brewer on Friday, April 30th, 2010 in a news release

Condensed story from 2009 Pulitzer prize winner, Politifact.com Click here for Full Story.

Jan Brewer, a Republican, is the governor of Arizona.

The new version of the law says: "A law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state may not consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of this subsection except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution."

The prior version had said that an official "may not solely consider race" in such circumstances.

The change appears to limit the scope of the law. The previous wording left open the possibility that race could be used as a factor -- just not the sole factor -- in deciding to stop someone.

The Arizona law, even in its revised version, sets up a clash of constitutional principles that could be fought over in the courts for years to come. Indeed, the law almost demands court involvement by expressly authorizing police to consider race “to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution" -- something that is far from nailed down.

For defendants who feel they were stopped unfairly due to racial profiling, it may be virtually impossible to show, at least for many months if not several years" that the police made their decision illegally on racial or ethnic grounds.

The late changes do bolster Brewer's contention that the law prohibits racial profiling. But our legal experts say that it is far from the done deal that she suggests. There are simply too many legal loose ends to be settled in court to be able to say that the late changes to the law will "lay to rest questions over the possibility of racial profiling," as Brewer put it.


So Jan Brewer --- Are you Kidding?