Pennsylvania Anti-Immigration Law Likely to be Upheld

Last year, the Third Circuit held that a local anti-illegal immigration notice in Hazelton, Pennsylvania was unconstitutional. Today, that decision was vacated by the Supreme Court and remanded “for further consideration in light of Chamber of Commerce of United States of America v. Whiting (last week’s case upholding an anti-immigration Arizona law.) This order doesn’t mean that the law is considered constitutional as of today, but it sends a strong signal indicating that the Supreme Court will uphold the law should it decide the case and encouraging the 3rd Circuit to save it the trouble.

As Adam says, Whiting doesn’t necessarily indicate anything about the constitutionality of Arizona’s infamous SB-1070, which is a quite different law. But it’s hard to argue that the Hazelton provisions are unconstitutional in the light of last week’s ruling.