The unanimous decision was decided on federal preemption grounds, which is not as sexy as some of the district court’s holdings (especially the §1981 bit), but it’ll do.

At this point, Arizona’s SB 1070 doesn’t stand a chance. Hopefully Jan “beheadings, beheadings, beheadings” Brewer will be kicked out of office in the meantime.

- AS

This week, Fremont, Nebraska residents passed a local anti-immigrant measure that aims to ban hiring or renting to “illegal immigrants.” Unlike the laws passed in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and Farmers Branch, Texas, this law was enacted by voter referendum. Otherwise, though, the law is pretty similar to its predecessors — it requires local employers to use a federal database to check the status of employees, and bars landlords from renting to any person in the country “illegally.”

The ACLU has already announced they will be filing a lawsuit to challenge the law.

These cases will take years to make their way to the Supreme Court — the Hazleton case has been going on for about 4 years now, and for some reason the Third Circuit has still not issued its decision. So, practically speaking, it was pretty dumb of Fremont to go down this road. Considering the ACLU (not to mention MALDEF, etc.) have aggressively litigated these types of cases elsewhere — and won — Fremont is in way over its Constitutional head.

The reason these local immigration laws get shut down so readily is that our immigration laws are made by the federal government, and they are immensely complicated. I put the term illegal in quotes above because immigration status is rarely that easy to determine. Even if a person enters the country without papers, they will often acquire valid status later – through marriage, or work, or other operation of the laws.

By way of example, the New York Times recently told the incredibly moving story of a deaf man who came to the U.S. illegally in the mid-nineties and was enslaved in New York until federal prosecutors finally discovered the slavery ring. He was allowed to stay in the country, went to a school for the deaf and then a New York City jobs training program, and now has a green card and works — amazingly enough — as a janitor on Ellis Island. The journeys of immigrants are complicated, and the twists and turns of the immigration laws even more so. Suffice it so say that a town like Fremont has no idea which of its non-citizen residents will end up getting a green card if they end up in federal custody and which will be deported.

I think it also bears mentioning, though, that in addition to be misguided for the aforementioned reasons, so-called anti-immigrant measures should more accurately be called anti-Latino measures. Since immigration status is ambiguous and impossible for local officials to determine, the real purpose of laws targeting “illegals” is generally to harass and intimidate Latino residents. The picture above comes from a bar in Hazleton in 2007, and it gets republished often because it bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the ubiquitous signage of the Jim Crow era. I doubt the thousands of undocumented Irish have to worry about landlords giving them a hard time.

All I can hope is that the passage of this law will put even more pressure on the Obama administration to work for meaningful immigration reform in this term.

-AS

Sad news this week. God decided to smite Touchdown Jesus (or as some refer to him, Big Butter Jesus). Touchdown Jesus was hit by lightning and burned completely to the ground, leaving only a steel frame behind. What are the possible implications of this smiting?

1. Burning Man is over.
2. God 1, Jesus 0.
3. Jesus tiring of more subtle face-in-toast, gentle-tears-down-statue-type miracles.
4. God is Jewish.
5. The end is nigh.

- AS

So you can imagine my irritation when I turned away from my property law studies to the New York Times, only to read more tales of rich dead dudes sticking it to the rest of us.

This year, billionaire Dan L. Duncan, soft-spoken hunter of polar bears, died, and it looks like his entire estate will pass to his heirs tax-free. Why, you ask? Why will we lose millions in tax revenue so that Duncan’s heirs can bask in even greater wealth? Like an old dead dude with future property interests, the whims of President Bush are coming back to haunt us. Back in 2001, Bush signed into law a one-year lapse in estate taxes to happen in 2010. (Apparently some of his cronies felt they had about another 9 years in them??) The NYT, being classy, notes this tax break has an element of the macabre:

Some estate lawyers worried that tax considerations might prompt their clients to keep an ill relative on life support through the end of 2009 to get the favorable treatment — or worse, resist life-prolonging measures to hasten a relative’s demise before the end of 2010.

I mean, really? Couple of million in taxes on an estate worth billions is worth making sure Gramps dies in 2010? Rich people are crazy.

Also, when is the ghost of Dubya going to stop haunting us already?

-AS

- AS

- AS

The law was intended to shut down a couple of ethnic studies programs in Tuscon, which focus on the influence of particular ethnic groups in American history and literature. This is a big problem, according to the state schools chief, Tom Horne, because . . . wait for it . . . the program teaches Latino students that they are oppressed by white people. That just cracks me up. I mean, I hate to break it to Horne, but Latino students don’t need an ethnic studies class to know that. Rest assured, they’ll learn that lesson one way or another.

But wait, there’s more. Horne also said the presence of the ethnic studies program has created an environment in Tuscon schools that is “just like the old South.” Whoa there! Looks like the Horne-ster may have been the product of America’s Failing Public Schools himself! Brief refresher. Old South: Lynching. Racial terrorism. School segregation. Jim Crow. Violence. KKK. Literacy tests. And most importantly? Notable absence of ethnic studies programs.

It says a lot about the pitiable state of things in Arizona that the man in charge of schools (the chief, no less) believes in pacifying students by teaching them complete nonsense. It takes a special kind of educator to get behind a program that seeks not to teach.

The ACLU has already argued the law violates the First Amendment and is hopelessly vague. Presumably, Horne’s going to be a little biased when he decides what classes “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.” But look. Isn’t a history class that excludes the perspectives of ethnic minorities in America designed primarily for white people? Maybe the real problem with the law is that, if taken seriously, it could knock out 99% of all public education in Arizona for lack of racial bias.

Finally — isn’t overthrow of the U.S. government more of an after-school club?

-AS

Apple is apparently harping back to that time in advertising with their new, headless iPad ads that only feature white people. They’ve eschewed the cool, sometimes race-ambiguous iPod silhouette ads of old, and are instead making ads that look like they are set in a Pottery Barn catalog.

I screen captured these images from ads and tutorials on the Apple website. Check out how white and upper class all these iPad users are!

Oh hello Long-sleeve T-shirt man. Is that an Old Navy tee? As if! Try Eddie Bauer. Compliments on the home – what is that, a granite counter top? Love the white-framed painting of abstract whiteness on your white walls there, too. I bet when the sky isn’t totally white you get beautiful views out of the floor-to-ceiling windows.

This has to be a joke. So T-shirt man just plops the ol’ iPad down on his thousand-dollar blue jeans, kicks up his suede (or whatever) shoes and starts to read the New York Times? With a latte, no doubt. But does he read the story about Obama critiquing Wall Street excesses? Oh no, he’s like, What’s this about kayaking in paradise now?

Look! There’s the latte! What is this fancy-jeans person reading, you ask? Oh, only True Compass: A Memoir by Edward Kennedy. This is starting to feel like an ad put together by the people at Stuff White People Like.

Here is my favorite transition. You think, why is this Ann Taylor dress/J Crew flats woman looking at a picture of this little foreign child? Does she want to adopt him or something? (And how does she keep her white table so white when she keeps putting her feet on it like that?)

Nope – she doesn’t care about that kid at all – she was just thinking about going to Paris, like all rich white people! Such as this gentleman, of the dress shirt and the immaculate wood floors.

This family budget was calculated before the family bought a bunch of iPads and had to add a little 1% pie sliver for “unnecessary shit.” As a side note, look how much this family spends on insurance! I know it’s hard to see, but ‘insurance’ is that massive blue portion. Hence their fascination with Edward Kennedy and health care reform, no doubt.

Oh no! Somebody forgot to put arugula on the grocery list. Although maybe fresh spinach and flat-leaf parsley (is that what it says?) are adequate substitutes. And who buys things like toothpaste and fabric softener at the grocery store? Rich people. In fact, who buys fabric softener? Someone who doesn’t have to lug all their detergents and such two blocks to the laundromat, that’s who.

I guess it’s no surprise that an expensive product that has no real purpose except as a lap accessory would be marketed to wealthy white people. But do they have to be so obnoxious about it?

-AS

I wholeheartedly support the decisions of state and local governments to boycott Arizona in order to protest that state’s new  anti-immigrant law. Unfortunately, after reviewing Gawker’s helpful guide to the boycott, I realized I have unknowingly been on a lifelong boycott of Arizona and all things Arizonan. The only thing about boycotting Arizona that really gives me pause is the Grand Canyon, but honestly a gorge is a gorge.

-AS

In case you haven’t heard, Brown got caught calling a British woman named Gillian Duffy a bigot when he didn’t realize his microphone was still on.

Several things are funny/infuriating about this story. First, Brown called Duffy a bigot after a conversation on the street in which Duffy made this somewhat remark about immigrants: “You can’t say anything about the immigrants because all these eastern Europeans, where they are flocking from?”

Although Duffy’s question does not literally make much sense – I mean, presumably she knows that “all these eastern Europeans” are flocking from eastern Europe – Brown understood her to be complaining about the same sort of thing the Duffys of America like to complain about, except regarding “the Mexicans.” So let’s see, that type of complaint is generally associated with . . . what is the word I’m looking for here? It means being impartial to your own group, like maybe your own racial or ethnic group, and intolerant of those who differ?

So Brown was pretty justified in referring to this woman as a bigot, especially because he was polite enough not to say it to her face. But now he’s been forced to apologize, which is the second thing that is infuriating/hilarious about this story. The third thing is Brown’s non-apology apology, which AR would just love.

My absolute favorite thing about this story, though, is that when confronted with the news that Brown had called her a bigot, Duffy did not know what the term meant. But then she complained about Brown by implying that calling someone a ‘bigot’ is ignorant: “He’s an educated person. Why is he coming at me with words like that?” Classic.

In honor of “Bigotgate,” then, let’s all have fun justifiably calling someone or something a bigot today. I pick Arizona’s Russell Pierce. You? Remember: it’s even more fun if the person might not know what the term ‘bigot’ means.

-AS