The lawyer for a Phoenix police officer who is challenging Arizona's new immigration law in court has asked a federal judge to merge his lawsuit with a challenge filed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The officer's attorney, Stephen Montoya, tells U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton in a court filing that the cases are virtually identical because they claim the state law is trumped by federal immigration law and because both seek to keep the state law from being enforced.
The law requires police, while enforcing other laws, to question a person's immigration status if officers have a reasonable suspicion that the person is in the country illegally.
The seven challenges to the law are currently all separate lawsuits.
samkat posted at 3:35 pm on Sat, Jul 17, 2010.
No, let him foot his own bill.
Slabside posted at 6:34 pm on Sat, Jul 17, 2010.
Agreed samkat. He called the tune so he should pay the band.
Doodad posted at 10:29 am on Sun, Jul 18, 2010.
I agree .
Let him pay for HIS lawsuit himself .
It should not be merged, simply because he filed
his suit at a state level and the DOJ at the
federal level.
Maybe next time, he'll think first ! ! ! !
SunWorshiper posted at 1:43 pm on Sun, Jul 18, 2010.
Although the article doesn't state specifically when the attorney made the request to combine lawsuits, COULD it be that the attorney had second thoughts in a stand-alone suit? I remember reading comments this week in local media about a past W. Steven Martin "charity collection drive" that didn't show the attorney's client (nor his brother) in a favorable light.
allamer posted at 7:23 pm on Sun, Jul 18, 2010.
I believe Montoya's legal fees are being paid by the usual suspects.
Masterrogue666 posted at 6:16 pm on Mon, Jul 19, 2010.
If one of the creators of this bill can't join the fight for it, then this request should be denied as well.