Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
A federal appeals court Thursday struck down a Hazleton, Pa., ordinance that made it illegal to rent to or hire an undocumented immigrant. The ordinance was a precursor to Arizona’s SB 1070 immigration law and other copy-cat anti-immigration legislation, and may signal what is to come for laws accused of preempting federal immigration authority.
A similar ordinance was passed in Fremont, Neb. That law was officially delayed while a legal challenge is pending.
Hazleton passed its ordinance in 2006. It was considered one of the toughest laws against illegal immigration at the time. The ACLU, along with other rights groups, filed a suit on behalf of the city’s landowners, business owners and residents, and the law was found unconstitutional by a federal court in 2007. In his decision, Judge James M. Munley wrote that the 14th Amendment applies to everyone in the U.S., not just legal residents.
The city of Hazleton appealed that ruling to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, which Thursday agreed that the city’s law was unconstitutional because it preempts federal immigration law.
Deciding which aliens may live in the United States has always been the prerogative of the federal government…To be meaningful, the federal government’s exclusive control over residence in this country must extend to any political subdivision. Again, it is not only Hazleton’s ordinance that we must consider. If Hazleton can regulate as it has here, then so could every other state or locality.
Still, future cases on anti-immigration laws are up in the air, The Los Angeles Times reported. The Supreme Court will hear an Arizona case in December to determine whether states can strip business licenses from companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants. The Obama administration and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have pushed for the court to strike down the law, which was upheld by an appeals court because states traditionally control business licensing.
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