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Politics The Town Voice Balanced

The Constitution and Arizona's New Immigration Law

By Arlon Staywell RICHMOND May 2010 — A sad commentary about Arizona's new immigration law asking people to carry and present when necessary "papers" or identification was that it makes authority seem like Nazis. But no, we would seem like Nazis if we decided it was time to start killing all the people with bad genes. Expecting identification in some circumstances is at least as civilized as having beer with sauerkraut, which is also civilized enough so long as there is no involuntary participation.
Even more at issue and more absurd is whether the constitution was contravened by the new law.
A serious question is how much foresight is shown by Article 1 Section 8 § 4 of the constitution which states Congress shall have the power to "establish an uniform rule of naturalization ..."? Does that foresee a United States with so many interior states as we have today? And is the point that however many interior states there might be they should share the financial burden of immigration and illegal aliens? Doesn't that same part of the constitution go on to say "and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States"? And is the point there much the same that all states share those financial burdens equally as well?
The expression "unfunded mandates" was not common in those days. But the good sense to avoid them was. You should know an unfunded mandate is a law that requires states to perform some expensive function without providing the funds to pay for it. As bad as it is for the federal government to ask all the states to do something expensive without any money for it, it is especially egregious to ask a small minority of border states to bear the full burden of illegal aliens for the whole country.
So the question of constitutionality might rather be flipped. Does the constitution prohibit Arizona's new law, or require the rest of the country to help pay for its costs?
Bearing in mind that it is improper to demand citizenship in a foreign country and only proper to request it, please consider those few marching in the streets against the new law could be using their good definition of "request."
And with the grand record of the United States of tolerance and acceptance of new poeple and new ideas consider that preserving that might mean a few well placed limits.
Progress Report July 28, 2010
Temporary injunctions against certain parts of Arizona's controversial new immigration law were issued late in July.
They make excellent topics for after dinner discussion. We owe it to ourselves to, from time to time, examine again these fundamental questions concerning our legal system in the United States.
A point often found at the very heart the discussion is whether the legal system is perfect. There are those who say it shouldn't exist unless it is perfect. Perhaps more reasonable are those who say although it is not perfect there can be more advantage than disadvantage to it, and to such a large extent that it is quite a good and sound thing. Exact numbers are difficult to find, perhaps one in twenty-five, perhaps one in two hundred people, or more or less, punished by the legal system are entirely innocent or markedly less guilty. Also difficult to find is whether it is one in thirty? One in sixty? One in ninety? The number of criminals who are guilty as sin, but walk away unpunished?
The people within the system work very hard for as much fairness as they can, fully understanding that what they do might burden the just and might excuse the unjust at times kept as rare as can be.
Some people will say that what the courts do is never strict enough, no matter what. Others will say it is too strict, no matter what. People in neither of those groups are likely to work very long inside the legal system. They will however speak freely. Between those extremes is an assortment of people many of whom are no better at their homework on the matters than the extreme groups are. Then there are those few who make the math and the science of it as close to truth and justice as any assortment of human beings can ever achieve.
Galileo said that mathematics is the language in which God wrote the universe. A reasonbly fair translation of what he said does anyway.
Providing identification is one of those things in the inconvenience-to-innocent-people column used in establishing the overall balance of things. It is not at all new in the Arizona law. Automobiles provide people with such mobility as would likely confound the law if identification were not required to drive. You must have a license, not only to establish that you know how to drive, but who you are. And that is why you need license plates on your car as well.
Is there anyone who doesn't understand that? Is anyone suggesting that everything will be fine without? All they have to do is stand in front of a fan and Horatio Caine will identify the manufacturer of the soap they used that morning and fully identify them by the next commercial? The methods used on some of those TV programs are very expensive and not as reliable as they are made to seem. So you really do still need to carry your license when you drive. The math doesn't work otherwise.
If you don't have a car, or that exceptional mobility it provides, you still need to identify yourself if you are in or near an apparent crime scene. You must provide a least a name by which you are well known and any apparent attempt to mislead the officer can be counted a crime in itself. Again this is in the inconvenience-to-innocent-people-column. And again it is not new in the Arizona law.
In my however well studied opinion the Arizona law is consistent with all federal and state laws, traditions and customs and none of the injunctions against it will stand in the end. But if a judge says that we must sit down and discuss it first then we better do so. You better do so because what judges say can have the force of law in such matters, and because I wholeheartedly agree that many of you sorely need to sit down and discuss them.
Further progress will be reported here when it occurs

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